


Curiosity is the lust of the mind

by oddlyfamiliar



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alien Biology, Alien Sex, Alien/Human Relationships, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Boss/Employee Relationship, Cunnilingus, Curiosity, Episode: s01e20 Better Angels, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Idiots in Love, Mutual Pining, Pregnancy, Pregnant Sex, Telepathy, set after season 1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-08
Updated: 2016-11-03
Packaged: 2018-08-20 06:14:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 32,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8238985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oddlyfamiliar/pseuds/oddlyfamiliar
Summary: Alex is a scientist, okay. It’s in her nature, in her blood, to be curious about things. Especially when those things are from another planet. Thankfully, J’onn seems perfectly content to answer her questions, even when things start to get, well, personal... (Set immediately at the end of season 1)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Tiara_of_Sapphires](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tiara_of_Sapphires/gifts), [Antares_28](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Antares_28/gifts).



> Curiosity is the lust of the mind - Thomas Hobbes.
> 
> I owe so, so, _so_ many thanks to both [Tiara_of_Sapphires](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Tiara_of_Sapphires/pseuds/Tiara_of_Sapphires) and [mshgolightly](http://archiveofourown.org/users/mshgolightly). Not only did they both give this a read through for me (although all mistakes remain my own), but they've just been amazing at supporting me through writing this <3
> 
> This fic is set immediately after the end of season one. I'll be using some of the spoilers and themes that we've heard about for the upcoming season two, but (at the moment) none of the new characters will be appearing, purely because I don't know enough about them yet to be able to write them! 
> 
> So far this is looking like it'll be four chapters, three of which are complete (and I'm currently working on the fourth), but I wanted to get at least this first chapter out before season two starts and everything gets utterly jossed :D
> 
> (Note: I've set the rating as explicit, although that doesn't really kick in until the next chapter. I'll also be updating tags as I go along, as I want some of them to remain a surprise!)

Things don’t calm down after Kara and J’onn save the world from Myriad. In fact, ever since Kara became Supergirl, things have barely been calm for even a day. Alex had kinda been hoping for a lull, at least one week where something isn’t going horrifically wrong. Hell, she’d be happy with just two days. Preferably at the weekend.

But, even when they’re trying to celebrate a hard earned win, something goes wrong. Alex is left behind with everyone else while Kara and J’onn go to investigate whatever it is that seems to have crash landed on Earth, and she’s never felt so frustrated in her life. She should be out there with them, protecting them. It doesn’t matter that neither of them particularly needs her protection, she still wants to be there with them anyway. Her cellphone starts ringing, but Alex barely needs to glance at the display to know that it’s Vasquez.

“Danvers,” she says in lieu of a greeting, already knowing what’s about to be reported to her.

“Ma’am, we’ve had something come up on our radar, some kind of vessel--”

“Yeah, we saw it from here. Supergirl and the Director have already gone to check it out,” Alex interrupts. “I’ll raise everyone on comms so we can find out what they’ve discovered.” 

Alex doesn’t wait for a response before she ends the call. Instead, she reaches into her pocket for her earbud and puts it in, then activates it and waits for either Kara or J’onn to respond. It’s a tense few moments, not made any easier by everyone watching her, waiting for an update. Finally, she can hear the comm static crackle to life.

“Alex?” It’s Kara, and it sounds like there’s wind rushing by her, so she must be flying.

“What’s happening? Are you both okay?”

“We’re fine, Alex, don’t worry,” J’onn’s deep voice rumbles over the comms, and Alex feels herself relax minutely. They’re both okay.

“There was a pod, Alex. It looks just like mine, but when we opened it there was no one in it,” Kara says, the tension clear in her voice. “It still felt warm inside though, so whoever it was can’t be far away. We’re searching the area now.”

Well, that explains the background noise. Alex’s mind races as she starts to put together a plan of action. “Okay, if you can’t find anything, come back here so we can regroup and get to the DEO. Maybe we can work out a way to track whoever it was.”

“Understood,” J’onn says, then everything goes quiet as they continue their search.

“Alex, what’s happening?” her mom steps forward to touch her arm as soon as she can tell the call is over.

“They found a pod, like Kara’s, except it was empty when they checked inside. It looks as though whoever was in it can’t be too far away, so they’re going to search the area.”

“Is there anything we can do to help?” James asks, the worry obvious in his frown.

Alex shakes her head. “No, we’ve got some pretty sophisticated tracking equipment at the DEO, so if they can’t find anything we’ll head there.”

None of them look particularly happy to be kept out of the loop, but Alex refuses to drag them into this until they have a better understanding of what’s going on. She encourages them to all go sit down and wait for news, but Alex stays by the window, looking out into the night and waiting for Kara and J’onn to return.

The thirty minute wait is agonising, especially when she can feel the additional tension coming from her mom, James, and Winn as they’re sat behind her. Eventually, she feels the woosh of air that signals their return, and she spins around to see Kara, still dressed as Supergirl, and J’onn, suited up in his armor, stride into the room. 

“Anything?” Alex asks, but she already knows the answer based on their faces. It doesn’t matter if J’onn looks like himself or like Hank Henshaw, she can read him just the same. 

Kara looks frustrated as she shakes her head. “Nothing. We need to find whoever was in that pod.”

Alex nods in agreement before she turns to her mom, James and Winn. “You can stay here if you want. We’ll be in touch.”

Before any of them can protest, Alex steps towards J’onn as he reaches a hand out to her. He pulls her in close and wraps his arms around her as he takes off, barely a second behind Kara. Alex feels the familiar swoop low down in her stomach that comes with both the anticipation of flying and the feeling of being wrapped in J’onn’s arms, but she pushes those thoughts to one side and concentrates on clinging to J’onn as they hurtle through the night sky towards the DEO.

They spend most of the night there, trying everything they can think of, but they still get nowhere.

Alex has no idea what arrived on Earth in that pod, but she can only hope that it means no harm. 

\---&\---

It’s been a fruitless week of searching. Tensions are running high at the DEO and even though Alex understands why Kara is so consumed by this, she knows they need to take a break or they’re all going to burn out. She not so subtly suggests to James that he take Kara out on an actual date. Alex knows all about their kiss on the night the pod crashed, and she also knows that Kara has been so focused on finding the inhabitant that she’s barely seen James since. Alex threatens Kara with revealing the kind of embarrassing information that only a big sister can know if she doesn’t actually take a break, and eventually Kara agrees that one night off won’t hurt.

So that just leaves J’onn.

Alex knows that he’s been working just as hard as Kara to find the missing alien, and she also knows that he’s been so focused purely because this means so much to her sister. It always makes her heart beat a little faster when she considers how far he’s willing to go if it will help them, but he needs a break just as much as Kara does.

She walks into the main control room at the DEO and finds him leaning over the large central table, maps and charts spread out in front of him. Even from across the room she can see how tired he is, so there’s no way she’s going to let him carry on tonight.

“Hey,” she says quietly as she approaches him, not wanting to startle him. Although, given that he uses his powers more often now, she’s not sure if she _could_ startle him.

“Hey,” he says back, still obviously distracted by the paperwork in front of him.

“I managed to convince Kara to take a night off…” Alex begins, taking up position right next to him and leaning back against the table so that they’re almost face to face, her hip brushing against his arm where it rests on the desk.

“Mmmhmm. Good. She needs a break,” J’onn mumbles, still reading the papers in front of him.

Alex waits a beat to see if he picks up on her hint, but when he remains oblivious, she decides that subtle isn’t the way to go. “Right that’s it. You’re coming home with me.”

That gets his attention. “What?” he blinks at her, utterly confused about the direction the conversation just took.

“You need a break too, J’onn. And I don’t trust that you’ll actually stop working if I make you leave here, so I’m going to have to kidnap you, take you to my place, and force you to eat take out with me. We might even watch some TV. Okay?”

He rolls his eyes at her and tries to use his stern ‘I’m the Director and your boss and I don’t need to do what you tell me to do’ voice. It doesn’t work on her, and it never has. “Alex, you don’t need to do that. I’m fine.”

“This isn’t a negotiation; it’s happening. Your only choice is whether you walk out of the door willingly or whether I drag you out of it.”

That prompts a smile from him. “I’m over 300 hundred years old, I’m a superpowered alien, and you’re a human. And yet I would still put my money on you winning any fight between us.”

“That’s because you’re smart,” she winks at him. “You’ve got five minutes to wrap everything up and then we’re leaving. If you’re quick, I might let you pick what we watch. I’m picking the food, though.”

In the end, it only takes him three minutes before they’re in Alex’s SUV and heading towards her apartment. He calls in the food order she gives him while they’re on the way, and barely twenty minutes later they’re at her front door just as the food arrives. J’onn grabs the food and pays for it before she can protest, so she holds the door open while he carries it in and walks through into her kitchen.

“I’m just gonna change clothes quickly,” she shouts through to him. “There’s wine in the fridge if you want any.”

Alex hears him hum an acknowledgement back at her before she makes her way through the apartment to her bedroom. She strips off her belt and guns, and locks the weapons away carefully in her safe before tugging her clothes off. Alex walks across to her wardrobe in just her bra and panties, trying very carefully not to think about the fact that she’s practically naked while J’onn is in the apartment. There are definitely downsides to having a crush on someone who’s telepathic. She grabs a pair of leggings and an oversized shirt, going for comfort over winning any fashion awards, and quickly gets changed. 

She’s only been gone for a few minutes, but when she walks back through into her living room, J’onn has already set all the food out on her coffee table and has a bottle of white open with two glasses ready. Alex grins at him and takes a seat next to him on the larger of her two sofas, crossing her legs underneath her, before she leans forward to grab the wine and pour it into the two waiting glasses.

“Can you even get drunk?” Alex asks, her mind ever-curious. Sometimes she can’t turn off the scientist inside her.

“I’m not sure, to be honest,” J’onn says, grabbing a plate and passing it over to Alex as soon as she’s done pouring the wine. “I’ve never really tried.”

There’s a few minutes silence while they both start piling food on their plates, but once Alex starts thinking about something it’s hard to distract herself until she gets to the bottom of something. “I know Kara can’t get drunk. Her body kinda heals itself before she can get beyond tipsy. We had to go through a _lot_ of alcohol to work that one out.”

J’onn grins at her. “I can imagine how that must have gone.”

“It was pretty entertaining,” Alex admits. She watches J’onn for a few minutes as he eats, before she asks another question that’s been on her mind recently. “I’ve been wondering. Everyone at work knows now… why do you still look like Hank Henshaw when we’re there? You could be yourself again if you really wanted.”

J’onn finishes chewing and takes a sip of his wine, clearly stalling for time while he thinks about his answer. Alex just tries to be patient and eats her own food while she waits. “It’s not as simple as that. Yes, everyone knows now; hell, the whole world practically knows. But I was hunted for a long time, Alex. I’m so used to hiding, that sometimes… being Hank Henshaw is kind of a security blanket? And there’s a whole world of difference between people knowing and people _accepting_ that I’m an alien, that I look different to humans. I guess I just don’t want to push too far, too fast.”

Alex feels her heart twist in pain for him, for everything he’s been through. “You can be whoever you want to be when you’re with me. I want you to know that this is a safe place for you. If you still want to look like Hank Henshaw then that’s absolutely fine and your decision. But if you want to be J’onn J’onzz while you’re with me, then I’ll do everything I can to make you feel safe.”

J’onn stares into her eyes for a moment, his face serious as he contemplates her words. She tries to keep her mind as blank as she can, just a steady wave of love and acceptance. Alex can see how much her words have affected him.

“Thank you, Alex.”

She smiles at him, then decides that they need a break from how heavy the conversation is getting. She leans forward to grab the remote control for the TV, and they settle down to eat their food while watching an old episode of Friends.

That night, Alex has the best night’s sleep she’s had in a long time. 

\---&\---

It turns into a regular thing. Whenever she can see that things are starting to get overwhelming, or whenever she’s feeling particularly stressed, she invites J’onn around for take out and TV. He pretends to be reluctant each time, but Alex knows that he enjoys himself on their nights in together just as much as she does. When they still make no progress on discovering who was in the pod that crash landed, Alex begins to focus back on Project Cadmus, and that’s when J’onn starts forcing _her_ to leave at night. Sometimes he takes her back to his apartment, sometimes they still go to hers. 

Despite everything going on, despite all her fears about Project Cadmus and trying to find her father, despite all the stress of their day-to-day work and worrying about Kara, Alex slowly begins to realize that she’s actually happy.

And she knows it’s because of how close she and J’onn are becoming. 

He’s been telling her stories about Mars, ones with a happy ending. About life and his culture and his family. And the more he tells her, the more she starts to tell him; sometimes it’s stories about her childhood before Kara, sometimes it’s stories about them growing up together. Occasionally, she tells him stories about some of her wilder days, and gradually he tells her some slightly less wholesome stories about when he was younger too. Alex loves everything that he tells her. Getting to see this side of him just makes her crush grow and grow, until she’s finally forced to admit that it isn’t a crush any more.

She’s in love with him. And she has been for a while.

She just has no idea what to do about it. Alex has no idea how J’onn feels about her, not in a romantic sense at least. She knows that he loves her, but it could be in a familial way and she can’t bear the thought of making things awkward between them. She knows that he loves Kara like a daughter, but there’s something a little different in the way he looks at her… maybe. Alex genuinely doesn’t know if she’s reading into it too much. Plus there’s the fact that he’s technically her boss, and the fact that he’s clearly still grieving over the loss of his family.

So Alex decides that, until she gets some kind of sign from him, she won’t try to pursue anything romantic. 

But that doesn’t mean that she’s going to stop their nights in together; even if he only ever wants to be her friend, she’ll be happy with that. It also doesn’t mean that she’ll be able to stop her curiosity from running away with her and asking him a million questions.

“So, how does your telepathy work?” Alex turns slightly to face him, her glass of wine hanging from her fingers as her arm rests on the back of the sofa.

J’onn puts his empty plate down and picks up his own glass, taking a sip and watching her before he answers. “How do you mean?”

Alex tries very carefully not to think about why she’s asking; her thoughts about him can sometimes accidentally turn into utterly filthy fantasies, and she needs to know whether _he_ knows that. “Can you hear what people are thinking as they’re thinking it, or can you just sort of dive into their minds and pick through memories? How does it happen?”

“It’s… difficult to explain. If I don’t shield my mind, then I can pick up surface thoughts from people around me. Sometimes, if someone is thinking something particularly forcefully, or with a lot of emotion, it can come through even if I am shielding. I can read through people’s memories, but I usually need to be touching them in order to do that,” J’onn pauses to take another sip of his wine. “And if a mental connection is developed with another person, then we should be able to communicate back and forth in our minds. I’ve never tried it on a human though, so I’m not sure how successful it would be.”

“Do you usually shield your mind from thoughts?” Alex hopes she sounds indifferent to the answer, instead of desperate to know.

“Usually. I’m not really interested in the minutiae of people’s thoughts. And if you’re asking about you in particular, then I try to give you as much privacy as I can, so no, I don’t listen in to your thoughts. Unless we’re in a dangerous situation; then I usually need to focus my mental energies and I can’t divert myself with a shield all the time.” 

Alex nods, her panic abating slightly. Until she knows how he feels about her, it would be really awkward for him to realize her feelings because of a stray thought about his ass.

The rest of the night carries on with random questions thrown at him, in between episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine. It turns out J’onn is a fan, so Alex is happy to indulge him.

\---&\---

Three nights later, and this time it’s J’onn dragging Alex from the DEO. She’s been delving deeper and deeper into what little she’s been able to learn about Project Cadmus, trying desperately to get hold of everything she can about it and start to put together a plan to find her father. If she’s honest with herself, she knows she’s not really making much progress, but she can’t _not_ do something about it. It isn’t until J’onn walks into the lab she’s commandeered as her makeshift office that Alex realizes it’s been about ten hours since she last ate anything, and by the look on his face, J’onn is going to fix that.

“C’mon Alex, let’s go get something to eat.”

She sighs down at the papers strewn across the desk and pushes her hands through her hair to pull it back from her face. “Yeah, okay. I’m not really getting anywhere right now, a break would be good.”

He directs her towards her vehicle, but he takes the keys out of her hand when she goes to get in the driver’s seat. “You look tired. I’ll drive while you take a nap. I can pick up some food on the way, okay?”

Alex mumbles out an okay, but she’s asleep two seconds after she sits down, so she concedes that maybe he’s right about some things.

It feels like two minutes later when his hand gently rests on her shoulder to nudge her back into the land of the conscious, although it must have been at least thirty minutes because they’re parked outside of her apartment and he’s holding two pizza boxes in his hand.

“Oooh pizza, good call,” she smiles as she tries to shake her drowsiness from her mind. J’onn just grins at her and moves around the vehicle to hold the door open for her to get out. “Thanks.”

He follows her as she makes her way up the stairs, and by the time they’re outside her door Alex feels wide awake and refreshed. She _definitely_ needed that nap. She lets J’onn in and they move without speaking, each of them used to their routine by now. J’onn heads over to put the pizza on the coffee table before he heads into the kitchen to get them drinks, while Alex moves to go get changed into something more casual. When she gets back into the living area, she sees that J’onn has put two glasses of water on the table instead of their usual wine. 

When she raises an eyebrow at him in question, he just raises an eyebrow back. “I figured wine would only make you sleepy again.”

Alex can’t help but laugh at that. “Yeah, that was probably a good call. I feel awake and alert now though, don’t worry. That nap was exactly what I needed, thanks.”

J’onn looks pleased for a moment before she catches him look her up and down. Instead of her usual leggings and shirt combo, she’s opted for her sleep shorts and an oversized t-shirt. She knows she’s pushing the edge of what’s appropriate to wear in front of him, but she’s feeling a little reckless today so she doesn’t care. His eyes seem to linger on her legs for a moment before he catches himself and looks down at the pizza. 

“What are we watching tonight?” J’onn says, clearly trying to pretend that he wasn’t just checking her out.

Smiling to herself, Alex takes a seat next to him, maybe a little closer than she usually would, and grabs a slice. “I don’t mind; we can just pick a random channel if you want?”

It takes J’onn a second to respond, and he’s so obviously watching her as she tilts her head back and sticks her tongue out to catch a bit of cheese as it tries to slide off her pizza. Alex can feel her heart rate pick up slightly at the tension building between them, but she tries not to push it too fast. She glances over at J’onn to remind him he hasn’t responded yet, and he just nods back at her, but Alex is pretty sure he has no idea what he’s agreeing to.

“So, I know that Kara needs to eat a _lot_ of calories during the day, especially when she uses her powers more; do you need to do the same?”

J’onn swallows the bite of pizza he’s just taken and nods. “It’s pretty much the same; especially because I’m always using my powers when I’m shifted into this body.” He gestures down at the body of Hank Henshaw.

Alex can’t stop herself from giving him a slow once over, and when she looks back up into his eyes, she can tell that it didn’t go unnoticed. There’s definitely _something_ building between them tonight.

She’s so focused on the look in his eyes, that she doesn’t even pay attention to what she’s saying. “What does your skin feel like?”

J’onn looks confused for a second before he realizes she’s talking about his Martian skin, not the skin of Hank Henshaw, but Alex can’t believe she just asked him that. She’s about to apologize and try to salvage the conversation, when red sparks crackle across the surface of his skin and suddenly J’onn J’onzz in all his usual armor is sat next to her. 

He doesn’t say anything, just puts the half-eaten slice of pizza back down in the box before he turns slightly towards her. Alex follows his move and drops her slice into the box and turns towards him. He just sits there looking at her, and Alex realizes that he’s waiting for her to touch him.

He’s going to let her touch his skin.

Alex’s heart rate spikes at the thought of touching him so intimately. He’s covered almost from head to toe in his armored suit, so Alex reaches out to gently rest her fingertips against his cheek. He’s warm and his skin is somehow both soft and firm at the same time. She carefully runs her fingers across his cheekbone and tries to remember how to breathe.

“Can I see what you look like without all the armor? Do you have a similar physique to a human?” Once again, Alex’s brain forgets to put a filter between her thoughts and her mouth, but she can hardly blame herself, given how distracted she is from just touching his face.

“I… yes. I’m fairly similar,” J’onn says, his voice a little deeper and rougher than before, and Alex shifts to try to hide the shiver that runs through her, “and yes, you can see me.”

There’s a moment where they both pause and nothing happens, and Alex can tell they’re both nervous about where this is going, but there’s something inside her that’s telling her not to stop. She knows she needs to be the one to instigate this, whatever this is, between them

“You should probably…” Alex gestures vaguely at J’onn’s torso and tries to fight a blush from forming, “take off your armor.”

“Oh,” J’onn sounds surprised and he stands up quickly then shifts a little on his feet, but he’s nodding and Alex is thankful that he’s going along with her, because if he stopped to question her motives then she’s certain she wouldn’t be able to shield her thoughts well enough from him. 

J’onn reaches up to his shoulders and unfastens two hidden clasps, before stretching his arm up over his back to grab hold of the section that sits at the back of his neck and holds his cape onto his suit, then pulls it away. Alex watches as he drapes it over the back of the sofa. He looks oddly naked without it, and Alex fights back another blush at the thought that he’s going to be a lot more naked soon.

He stands still for a second, his brows furrowed as though he’s concentrating, and it takes Alex a second to work out what he’s doing. It isn’t until she hears a sound that’s both like a zipper and yet _not_ that it’s confirmed; he’s using his telekinesis to undo the back of his suit. Handy. J’onn pulls off his gauntlets and the sections of armor from his chest and shoulders and rests them on her coffee table next to the abandoned pizza, before tugging at the ends of his sleeves and pulling the material off his shoulders and down his arms. He pushes the rest of the suit down around his waist, so it's draping down over his belt, and it’s at that point that Alex realizes that the suit is all one piece. She tries not to let her eyes stray too far south so that he won’t be able to pick up on how filthy her thoughts are becoming.

Alex stands up as well and takes a step closer towards J’onn, but hesitates when she sees him take a steadying breath. He almost looks nervous. “Are you okay?”

“This is the most vulnerable I’ve been in a long time,” he says, looking her straight in the eyes. “No one on Earth has seen this much of my skin before.”

Alex is bowled over by the weight behind those words. He _trusts_ her so completely and she feels such an intense love for him right now. She doesn’t even care if he picks up on it. In fact, she almost hopes that he does. He deserves to know that he’s loved.

Although, wait. If no one has even seen his chest and arms in the last fifty years that he’s been on Earth, does that mean… 

“Have you not… been intimate with anyone?” Alex asks, almost reluctantly. She’s not sure if she wants to know the answer; an irrational burst of jealousy rises in her, even though she knows she’s being silly about it.

J’onn just shakes his head gently. “There’s never been anyone I trusted enough to be this vulnerable with before. Not as myself, and not while I looked like anyone else either.”

Alex can almost feel herself shaking with the intensity of her emotions right now, but she tries to get control of herself. She slowly reaches her hand out to touch his chest, wanting to feel the texture of his skin under hers. 

“Are you even able to,” Alex gestures vaguely, oddly embarrassed given that she’s a scientist, “y’know, with humans?”

J’onn is staring down at her, his bright red eyes never leaving hers. “I believe so. Everything is roughly compatible. Anatomically speaking.”

They both automatically glance down towards his crotch at that, and Alex tries desperately hard not to react. She doesn’t say anything in response, because she genuinely doesn’t know what might come out of her mouth right now. Instead, she runs her fingers across his chest and takes note of the differences in his skin that are more obvious than when she touched his face. His skin is thicker than a human’s, but it seems as though it’s just as sensitive, given the slight shiver she can see run through J’onn. His upper body seems roughly similar to a human’s torso, with the exception of his skin being a different color. She can see muscle groups in pretty much the same places as she’d expect, although there seems to be a slight difference in the bone structure, and she wonders whether the same is true of his lower body.

“Can I see your legs? I’m interested in seeing if your muscles are similar to a human’s,” Alex says softly, her fingers still mindlessly wandering across his skin.

J’onn hesitates again for a second, so Alex lifts her gaze from his torso and looks him in the eye. “Underwear is a human concept,” he says, and Alex is so distracted by his chest that she doesn’t understand what he means for a moment.

Until her eyes drift down to where his suit is pushed down to his waist and she realizes he’s not wearing anything under it.

She can feel herself blush furiously and is about to backtrack and tell him it doesn’t matter, when he undoes his belt and then grabs hold of the material of his suit where it’s bunched around his hips and pushes it down. Her view is obstructed for a second by his shoulders and upper back, but then he kicks off his boots, steps out of the legs of the suit and straightens up.

He’s naked.

Completely naked.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sneaking chapter 2 in before the start of season two as well!

Alex can’t stop staring at J’onn. He’s standing in front of her, _completely naked_. 

In her defence, he is _definitely_ worthy of staring at. His legs are thick and his muscles are clearly defined, but that’s not what she’s unable to tear her eyes away from. He was right when he said everything is roughly anatomically compatible. His penis is the same basic shape as a human male, and even though he’s soft, he’s thicker and longer than any other she’s seen, although her favorite dildo isn’t too far off and _woah_ she really shouldn't have just thought that, because that's just inviting thoughts of him thrusting into her, and it's a struggle to control how flushed her face is getting. 

It’s difficult to tell because he’s soft, but it almost looks as though there are some slight raised ridges running midway down his shaft, and if he were human she’d say he was circumcised, except he’s _not_ and there doesn’t seem to be any scar tissue so she can only assume that this is his natural state.

Alex knows she should lift her gaze, and she will any minute, but she honestly can’t look away right now. She can feel how turned on she’s getting, how slick and wet she is, and she can only hope that J’onn isn’t reading her mind right now. Although at this point he may as well; she’s not sure how she’s supposed to work with him and be _normal_ now, instead of thinking about what he looks like naked. 

It’s been a long ten seconds of her just staring at him. Neither of them have said anything, although Alex doesn’t even know what she would say if her brain was capable of speech right now. She finds herself taking a step closer to him again and she could reach out to touch him so easily right now. She’s still staring at his groin so she notices as he twitches slightly and _oh_ that causes of rush of pure liquid heat to go through her. Alex is certain that she must be soaking through her panties right now.

Her brain still hasn’t engaged, so she doesn’t even realize she’s raised her hand until her fingers brush against the warm skin of his hip. Her touch causes him to twitch again and she can see that his cock is starting to fill and thicken and oh god, _she did this_. Her touch is turning him on. Alex feels such a heady rush of emotions that she almost misses the fact that he’s reached out to rest one hand gently at her waist.

“Alex,” J’onn says quietly, barely more than an exhalation, “what are we--”

She cuts off his words as she carefully runs her fingertips down his length, feeling how warm and soft his skin is. He hardens further under her touch, his dick bobbing under the force of the blood rushing to fill him, and she can tell that they’re definitely ridges now. Alex can feel herself squirm slightly, her thighs pressing tightly together, as she imagines how they could feel as he fucks her. 

J’onn’s fingers tighten on her waist, but he isn’t trying to push her away. Given his powers he could easily stop things if he didn’t want her like this, and that knowledge gives Alex the final bit of courage she needs.

“I've wanted this, wanted _you_ , for a long time, J’onn,” Alex mutters, finally lifting her gaze to look him in the eye. “If you don't want me then that's fine, I understand, but please tell me now.”

He’s silent for a few seconds, just watching her. “I've loved you since that first day we met and I've wanted you since the first day you managed to pin me during training,” he smiles gently at her. “I just never thought you could feel the same way about me, especially given that I'm not human.”

Alex doesn’t know how to respond to that, so instead she goes with her instincts. She lifts her hands to rest against his shoulders and leans in on her tiptoes to place a gentle kiss to his lips. At least, she intends for it to be gentle. Instead, J’onn licks at her bottom lip and the kiss turns frantic and heated quickly. Alex slides her tongue against his and steps closer into him, his dick pressing hard into her abdomen. She swallows his groan as his arms wrap around her waist, pulling her flush against him, and Alex almost feels dizzy from the force of his kiss.

“You’re wearing distinctly more clothes than I am, Agent Danvers,” J’onn mutters against her mouth, and Alex can’t help but grin at how desperate he sounds already.

“I’m sure you can think of a way to fix that,” Alex teases, barely breaking her lips away from his long enough to speak.

J’onn lets out a soft grunt of a laugh before he slides his hands underneath her t-shirt and starts tugging it up. They have to break apart for him to pull the material over her head and Alex grabs hold of it to throw it onto the back of the sofa while J’onn lets his hands run back down her sides. His thumbs stroke against the sides of her breasts and Alex can feel her nipples harden against the fabric of her bra. J’onn seems entranced by her skin and can’t stop his hands from running across her body, sweeping in big arcs across her back and sides and belly. He hasn’t touched her where she so desperately needs it yet though, and Alex gets the feeling she’s being teased.

Instead of stopping him, Alex decides to get things moving herself. She tugs her shorts down her hips, breaking away from J’onn’s touch for a moment so she can push them down her legs and kick them off her feet. She’s stood in front of him in only her bra and panties now and J’onn looks like someone’s hit him with a sledgehammer.

“You’re so beautiful,” he whispers, and Alex doesn’t get time to respond before he’s gathered her close to him again and is kissing her, his tongue licking into her mouth. 

Alex reaches behind her to unclasp her bra, before leaning back slightly to let it drop to the floor. J’onn pulls her closer again, her breasts crushed against his chest. He lifts her until she wraps her legs around his waist, his erection pressing into the crease between her ass and thigh, and starts to walk towards her bedroom. Every step he takes causes her to rub against his abdomen and she can’t stop herself from moaning into his mouth. Alex writhes down on him, but it’s not enough, she needs to feel him completely and her panties are in the way. It’s barely a second after she thinks that when she feels J’onn smile against her lips. Then she hears a ripping sound and suddenly her panties aren’t an issue any more.

“Did you just rip those off me?” Alex breaks the kiss to pull back and look him in the eyes, one eyebrow arching at him.

He looks guilty for a second, but then just smirks at her. “They were in the way.”

Alex tries to stop the smile twitching at her lips but she gives in quickly. She can’t even pretend to be mad at him right now. 

J’onn takes the last few steps forward into her bedroom, but he doesn’t put her down on the bed like she was expecting. Instead, he keeps his left arm wrapped around her waist and drops his right hand to cup her ass, squeezing and spreading her open slightly. He’s completely holding her weight and Alex has no leverage to squirm against him but she tries anyway. J’onn just huffs a laugh at her before he captures her lips with his again. 

Alex gets so lost in the kiss that she doesn’t realize for a second that he’s slid her further down his body until she suddenly feels the head of his dick nudge against her clit. Before she can try to rock against the feeling, J’onn lets go of her ass and Alex can feel his arm moving underneath her. His dick moves further back until he’s pressed against her entrance, and _oh_ he’s going to fuck her while he’s holding her in the air. Alex deepens their kiss as a bolt of heat flashes through her, and she tries to press down onto him, to let him know that she’s ready.

He kisses her back for a moment and grabs hold of her ass again, before breaking away and moving his face far enough back that he can look her in the eyes. “Are you sure?”

Alex immediately nods at him. “Please, J’onn. _Fuck me_.”

He looks stunned again and Alex is quickly learning that it’s also his ‘turned the fuck on’ expression. She keeps one arm wrapped around the back of his neck but brings her other around so she can cup his face with her palm, stroking her thumb against his cheekbone. They’re just staring into each other’s eyes and Alex feels so _happy_ and at peace. He gently starts to push into her, slowly, because as wet and ready as she is, he’s still _big_. It’s such an intense feeling, having him slowly entering her, and Alex starts shaking slightly at how overwhelming it all is.

J’onn pauses when the head of his dick is finally inside her. “Are you okay? _Fuck_ , Alex, you’re so tight; am I hurting you?”

Alex huffs out a laugh and tries to encourage him to keep moving into her. “It’s not that I’m tight, J’onn; it’s that you’re _big_.”

She can see him trying not to smirk at that and it amuses her that men all react in the same way to that compliment, even if they are from Mars. Alex shifts again and manages to get him to slide further into her, but her triumphant grin only lasts a second because _fuck_. She’s trying to relax, let herself open up more, but all she wants to do is clench down on his dick. He gently lifts her up a little then rocks her back down, and Alex gasps as she feels herself stretch open to take him. J’onn keeps going, lifting her off him and pushing her back down; he’s so gentle with her, but each time he pulls her further onto his dick. 

J’onn tips his head down to kiss her, distracting her and helping her to relax a little more as he pushes her down that final inch until he’s fully seated in her. Alex is trembling again, unable to stop herself from shaking apart at feeling so full, at having him inside her like this. He’s still holding her in place, one arm wrapped around her waist, but Alex doesn’t realize that he’s moved his other hand off her ass until she feels him slide it over her hip and between her legs. He barely touches her, his thumb slides once across her clit, but apparently that’s all it takes because Alex is fucking gone. A strangled groan breaks free from deep in her throat as her head drops back, and it’s like every nerve in her body is singing. She clenches down, _hard_ , around J’onn’s dick and her thighs clamp tight around his hips, but Alex could be on another planet right now for all that she’s aware of her body. It’s like her vision has whited out and there’s a buzzing sound echoing in her ears, and she slowly becomes aware of J’onn growling her name against her lips.

Alex’s whole world shifts for a second before she blinks and realizes that J’onn has laid them down on her bed. He’s on his back with Alex draped across his body, and he’s still fully inside her, so Alex takes advantage of the change in position to sit up slightly and rock down onto him. Her legs feel like jello but she has just enough strength in her arms to prop herself up against his chest and grind down onto him. He’s still rock hard inside her but she’s relaxed enough, and more than wet enough, for him to be able to slide in and out of her easily now. She lifts up on her knees and slams herself down on him, determined to make this as good for him as he already has for her.

J’onn groans deep down in his chest, the vibrations travelling up Alex’s arms and making her grin down at him. J’onn just grabs hold of her ass again to pin her in place while he lifts his knees, his feet flat on the bed. He presses his shoulders and feet down against the mattress and uses the leverage to thrust his hips up, fucking into her hard and fast.

“Oh _fuck_ , J’onn,” Alex cries, her fingers pressing into his chest as she tries to gain enough purchase to move back into his thrusts, but J’onn keeps his grip steady, just holds her in place while he keeps fucking into her. 

The angle he’s hitting and the friction of his ridges inside her are almost too much. Alex can feel herself hurtling closer to another orgasm already and there’s nothing she can do to slow it down. She starts clenching down on him without realizing it, her body completely taken over by pleasure, and he keeps his almost brutal pace without showing any signs of fatigue. Alex can’t help but think about how strong he is, how tireless; he could hold her up against a wall and fuck her for hours without having to pause. Hell, he could probably fuck her while hovering in midair or, even better, while _flying_. A split second fantasy of him holding her in his arms while they fly over the city, his dick rocking into her, flashes across her mind and she knows somehow that she’s projecting her thoughts to him but she can’t help it. J’onn seems to appreciate the image, if the way his fingers tighten on her ass and spread her further open for him are any indication. 

Alex doesn’t even question the fact that she’s thinking of them doing this again. As far as she’s concerned, she’s finally got him where she wants him. She knows J’onn pretty well by now, and the fact that he’s here with her like this, when she knows he’s never been intimate with any other human, with _anyone_ in at least the last fifty years, just proves to her that he’s in this with her. It’s not going to be easy, but this could turn into something real.

His grip on her ass stops her from rocking back, but Alex is highly trained and she has a way of thinking outside the box. Instead of moving into his thrusts, she decides to change the game completely. She uses her grip on his chest to push herself further upright, changing the angle of J’onn’s thrusts, and pushing him even deeper inside her. 

“ _Alex_ ,” J’onn grunts, his hips stuttering as his rhythm starts to break. “I’m close.”

She’s right on the edge again, the pressure building deep down in her belly. “Me, too.”

J’onn hesitates slightly, his hips pausing their thrusts, and Alex can see that he’s fighting himself over something. He looks into her eyes, his own shining even brighter red for a second. “I don’t know what could-- I’ve never--”

Alex can see that he’s struggling with something, so she stops her attempts to rock down onto him and strokes her hand against his chest. “What’s wrong?”

“You’re human, Alex. I’m… not. I don’t know if I could get you--” J’onn cuts himself off again, his fingertips digging into her ass as he tries to stop himself from thrusting up into her.

_Oh_. Alex suddenly realizes why he’s so hesitant to carry on, right when they’re both so close. She has no clue if it could even happen; if they could actually create a child together. She’s never particularly thought about the possibility of motherhood before, but there’s something about even the very _idea_ of being able to give J’onn this, of being able to give him a family again, that sets something off deep inside her.

Now is so _not_ the right time. They’ve only just begun whatever _this_ is between them and it’s something they really should talk about first, and yet… _God_ it’s all Alex can think about. She can feel herself getting even wetter just thinking about him coming deep inside her. About him possibly getting her pregnant. Alex can almost feel his arms wrapped around her swollen stomach as she carries his child, and she can picture with perfect clarity how amazing he would be as a dad.

She tilts her hips against his, rocking down on his hard length inside her, and when she looks into his eyes she can see how utterly dumbfounded he looks. Alex scratches her nails lightly down his torso as she takes advantage of his distraction and lifts herself as high as she can, before slamming back down onto him. “J’onn, I’m pretty sure I was thinking all of that loud enough for you to pick up on my feelings here. Now’s the time to stop if this isn’t what you want, too.”

“Are you sure?” J’onn gasps out, his hips already shifting up to meet her downward thrusts. His hands are wandering across her skin, roaming up to cup her breasts as they bounce on each of her downstrokes. 

She nods at him, her words failing her as their thrusts get faster and harder. He pinches her nipples hard and Alex can’t stop her moan bursting out from deep in the back of her throat. Despite the pause, she’s still on the edge of her orgasm; it’s right at the edge of her reach, but she just can’t quite get there. She grabs hold of his hands and pushes them down her torso, intending on nudging him back towards her clit, but they both pause just below her belly button. 

J’onn keeps one hand pressed there, his fingers linked with hers and spread out against her skin, as he moves his other lower. Alex watches as he slowly strokes between her legs, the fire in her belly building again as he circles his fingertips around her clit. She falls forward slightly, the sensations building again too fast for her to be fully in control of her body, but she catches herself with a hand on his chest. Alex tightens her grip on his hand, right where it rests on her abdomen, and tries to remember how to breathe. She can feel warmth all around her, enveloping her body and her mind, and she suddenly realizes that the warmth is J’onn. She can feel his presence all around her, but it’s not enough; she wants him to be fully inside her.

_Do it_ , she thinks at him. _I need you; all of you_.

The warmth builds in intensity and Alex lets it wash over her, accepts it into her, until she can _sense_ J’onn in her mind. Except it’s more than that, because it’s like she’s in _his_ mind too. It’s like they’re connected fully, and it’s all too much for her to take. Alex cries out as her orgasm crashes over her like a wave and her body locks up, the emotions too much to process. Her thighs tighten around his hips and she clenches down on him, while her fingers grip desperately at his hand on her belly. She hears a guttural roar escape J’onn as he comes, spilling himself into her body. Alex can feel every pulse as he fills her, and she’s never felt more complete.

It’s barely a few seconds before she comes back to herself, yet it feels like a lifetime. J’onn is still hard inside her but she can feel him starting to soften, and even though she doesn’t want to lose that connection with him, she knows she needs to move. Alex carefully lifts herself off him and rolls to his side, curling up underneath his arm while J’onn tilts himself slightly towards her and wraps both arms around her.

“Are you okay?” J’onn asks, leaning back slightly and tilting Alex’s face up towards his.

“Yeah,” Alex says, before squirming slightly. “I’m a little sore, but I’m good.”

J’onn tilts his head back down to drop a gentle kiss against her lips. “I’m sorry, is there anything I can do?”

“No, it’s a, uh, it’s a good kind of sore, don’t worry,” Alex smiles at him. “Are _you_ okay?”

“Yeah, I really am,” J’onn says. “Although, do you mind if I change back into Hank? This bed is a little too short for me…”

Alex huffs out a laugh against his shoulder and presses a quick kiss to the skin there. “Do whatever makes you comfortable, J’onn. I don’t mind what you look like.”

There’s a crackle in the air and Alex can feel a slight tingle against her skin where it touches him as he shifts; another second later and she’s half-laying on Hank Henshaw. 

“Are you sure this is okay?” J’onn asks again, and his desire to make sure she’s alright makes her smile.

“It really doesn’t matter to me what you look like; you’re still you, J’onn. You’re the one that I’m interested in.”

J’onn kisses her again, holding her tight in his arms, and Alex runs her hands down his back. She can feel the slight differences in the play of his muscles and skin, and although it should probably freak her out, she’s surprised by how little it bothers her. J’onn presses light kisses across her cheek until he reaches her jaw, then he tips her back slightly so he can reach the soft skin of her throat. 

“We should probably talk about this,” Alex sighs, her fingers digging into his back as he sucks at her throat. “What are we gonna do about work?”

J’onn kisses across her chest and slides further down the bed until he can reach her breast. He nudges his face into her soft flesh and gently presses open mouth kisses everywhere he can reach. Alex runs her hands over his hair before tilting his face back slightly so she can look him in the eye. “I’m serious, J’onn, what are we gonna do about work?”

“I don’t want to hide our relationship from anyone, but I have to be honest and admit that I want to keep you to myself for a while,” J’onn murmurs, his face already tilting back to press against her skin as though he can’t bear to not be touching her. His hands come up to span her waist and he pushes her a little further onto her back as he slides so he’s resting between her legs. “I say we don’t say anything for a little while. Let’s get used to us first, then we can work out how to start telling people.”

Alex nods and smiles at him; she doesn’t want to hide either, but she also doesn’t want to actually tell people yet. J’onn slides even further down the bed until his face is pressed into her abdomen, and Alex squirms as she thinks about him doing that if she were pregnant. About how he’d look, his face resting against her swollen belly, dropping kisses on her skin, and Alex can feel herself getting wet again. J’onn presses a kiss low down on her belly, right above where her curls start and she’s already so beyond ready for this.

J’onn slides until he’s completely between her legs, his head between her thighs, and he uses his hands to spread her knees even wider around his shoulders. It’s not until Alex can feel the slick slide of his come between her lips that she suddenly feels self conscious.

“Wait, J’onn, I should get cleaned up first,” she tries to move away from him, embarrassment causing her face to heat up, but he just holds her in place.

“Don’t worry, Alex, I can clean you up,” is all the warning she gets before he drops his face between her legs and licks at her pussy, his tongue dragging against her entrance and catching his own come as it leaks out of her.

Alex squeaks, a high pitched and thready sound that breaks free before she can stop it, and she flushes even further as she glances down at the sight of her boss smirking up at her from between her spread thighs. He maintains eye contact with her as his tongue licks along her cunt until he reaches her clit and his lips wrap around her flesh as he sucks gently at her.

“Oh my god,” Alex pants, her head falling back to hit the pillow as her hips arch up against his face, “oh my _god_.”

He breaks away from her for a second and raises his head to smirk in her direction. “You can just call me J’onn.”

Alex raises her head so she can look at him properly and she tries to glare at him for the terrible joke, but he looks so amused by himself that she can feel her heart pound for a beat or two at the rush of affection she feels for him. Before she can say anything, he ducks back down to curl his tongue around her clit as he slips two thick fingers into her and _fuck_. Alex can feel how easily they’re pressing into her, a combination of how wet she is and how much of his come is already inside her, slicking the way. He keeps rocking his fingers in and out of her, crooking his fingers slightly to skim against her g spot, and he keeps lapping at her clit, the wet slide of his tongue making her shake all over. 

She has no idea how he’s _so good_ at this; if he’s not been intimate with anyone here on Earth then it must mean that this is something that happened on Mars too, and Alex wishes she could turn off her curiosity sometimes because she just keeps blurting out questions at him tonight. “How are you so -- is this something you used to do on Mars?”

J’onn pauses his movements and lifts his head a little to look at her, and Alex could kick herself for making him stop. “No, this wasn’t… oral sex wasn’t common on Mars,” he says, the confusion clear in his voice. “Why?”

“But… how are you so _good_ at this?” Alex squirms a little as his fingers flex inside her.

He raises an eyebrow. “I haven’t been with anyone else while I’ve been on this planet, but I’ve still had a sex drive, Alex,” he begins, but at her look of confusion, he clarifies, “I’ve watched pornography. Oral sex is quite prevalent in it.”

“Oh,” Alex says before her brain catches up with her and _oh_. Her mind is flooded with images of him masturbating while watching videos of a faceless woman being eaten out and Alex moans as she gets even wetter around his fingers. J’onn fucks his fingers into her a little harder and spreads them apart slightly so he can slide his tongue alongside them and taste her, and she suddenly _needs_ to know if that’s what he was doing. “Did you touch yourself while you were watching?”

“Yes,” J’onn growls out and Alex can just make out the movement of his hips shifting against the mattress. The sheet that’s haphazardly piled towards the bottom of the bed covers his ass and legs, but Alex is about 90% certain that he’s grinding down against the bed. He sucks at her clit again, a little harder this time, and she can’t control the twitch of her own hips as she tries to press against his face.

“Have you ever, _ah_ , have you ever thought of me?” Alex pants out, her fingers twisting into the sheets below her as his lips and fingers drive her insane. She can feel him pause and she looks between her legs to see the confusion on his face. “While you’re jerking off; do you think of me?”

“Fuck, _Alex_ ,” J’onn presses his face against her inner thigh as his hips buck against her mattress again. His eyes meet hers again as he nods slowly. “Yes.”

Alex moans again and grabs at his shoulders, tries to drag him up towards her. His fingers slide out of her as he moves until he’s hovering over her, but she barely has a second to mourn the loss before his lips descend on hers and they’re kissing desperately. Alex is panting against his mouth and twisting her hips up to press against his, and she swallows J’onn’s groan as his erection slides against the crease of her thigh.

“Have you ever thought about me like that?” J’onn asks, almost tentatively, as though he’s not sure what the answer will be.

Alex tilts his face away from hers for a second so that he can see her properly; she wants him to be able to see the truth in her words, for him to have no doubt about how she feels. “Yes; even before I knew the _real_ you. I used to have some pretty intense dreams when I thought you were just Hank but I put it down to having a crush on you. After I found out who you really are, well, I realized it wasn’t just a crush.”

He looks utterly floored by her words, as though he hasn’t really let himself even _hope_ that she could feel the same way as he clearly does. Alex lifts herself up slightly so she can kiss him, wanting to make sure that he understands exactly how she feels. He must get the picture because he presses her back down into the mattress and slides his tongue into her mouth. Alex grabs at his shoulders, her fingers aching to touch him, and slides her hands down his back feeling the strength in his muscles as she goes.

J’onn shifts against her slightly and then suddenly his erection is sliding just right against her, and with one thrust he’s inside her again. Alex’s hips surge up, trying to get even closer to him, but J’onn just moves so he’s leaning on one forearm and slides his other hand down her side until he reaches her hip. He cups his hand around her and pins her down to the mattress then proceeds to drive her utterly mad by slowly, _so slowly_ , drawing back and fucking into her again. 

“J’onn, please,” she begs, needing him to do _something_ because this slow drag of friction is too much. “Harder, _please_.”

With a grunt, J’onn thrusts into her again, harder this time, a little faster. He keeps her hip pinned to the bed though, so she can’t get any leverage to move against him.

_I love you, Alex_ , she hears his voice in her head as clear as day, and she’s overwhelmed by that feeling of warmth again. She’s not sure what’s happening, but she runs her hands back up over his skin to hold his face close to hers as she kisses him fiercely.

_I love you, too, so much_ , she tries to say back, hoping that he can hear her. His hips drive into her with a new level of desperation and the warmth inside her mind spikes to a pulse of heat, so Alex figures that he heard her just fine.

_Our connection must have strengthened enough that we can speak directly to each other’s minds_ , his voice in her head says. 

_Clearly we’re not doing something right here if you can still think that coherently_ , she sasses back to him, and she can feel his lips twitch into a smile against her mouth. 

_Hold on_ , he says, but before Alex can react to that, he slides one arm under her hips and tilts them up off the bed. He shifts so he’s kneeling upright between her legs, her shoulders still pressed against the mattress, and Alex just raises an eyebrow at him and waits to see what he’s about to do. J’onn slides his hands down until they’re spanning her hips then suddenly slides out of her and slams back in, his thrust is powerful and at the perfect angle and _fuck_ Alex can’t even breathe as the wave of pleasure crashes over her.

“Oh, _oh god_ , right there,” she babbles, her neck arching back until she can practically see her headboard. 

J’onn doesn’t stop, he doesn’t even _pause_ , he just thrusts back into her, hard and fast and perfect. He’s not quite as big in this form as he is in his natural state, although he’s still way above average, but the ache Alex can feel somehow just makes it even better. She twists her fingers in the rumpled sheets below her and tries to hold on as he keeps driving into her, but there’s no way she’s going to last long. Alex can already feel a slow burn starting at the base of her spine, the tendrils starting to heat along her nerves as she gets closer and closer to coming.

_Touch yourself_ , J’onn whispers into her mind and Alex moans at how wrecked he sounds. She lets go of the sheets and grabs at her breasts desperately, the touch already almost too much. Alex gropes at herself, her nails dragging lightly over her nipples. She can’t help but shiver at the sensation and then grin when she hears J’onn grunt loudly as she tightens around him.

Alex shifts slightly so she can watch J’onn as she slides one hand down her stomach. His thrusts stutter slightly as he watches her push her fingers down through her curls until she lightly skims over her clit, and Alex can _feel_ every sensation echoing back and forth between their minds. They’re both close, so Alex decides to push them over the edge. She slides two fingers back over her clit, circling around until she can feel herself tightening up, her need to orgasm taking over everything else.

She makes eye contact with J’onn and the heat in his gaze gives her the final nudge she needs. _Come inside me, J’onn, I need you to fill me up_.

“ _Fuck_ ,” he growls as his fingers grip her hips hard, surely leaving bruises, and he slams inside her one last time. He holds himself there as Alex can feel him pulse into her, and it’s all she needs to let go. Her orgasm hits her hard, her thighs and knees locking around J’onn and digging into his sides, but she can’t move; she can only feel. 

It seems like minutes pass before she can think straight again and J’onn looks just as wrecked as she feels. He gently pulls out of her and he drops down on his side next to her, pulling her close to him.

“We should get some sleep,” she whispers against his cheek, even though she knows that she should really get cleaned up first. 

“Mmm,” J’onn rumbles from deep in his throat, his eyes already closing.

Alex decides that sleep is more important. She relaxes against him as J’onn’s arms wrap around her, and she drifts off to sleep.

\---&\---

Alex wakes up just before her alarm to find J’onn curled up behind her, his arm around her middle and holding her close to him, and despite a few aches, she feels better than she has in a long time. She’s not sure whether their mental connection is still active, so she decides to test it and see if she can wake J’onn up.

 _J’onn_ , she thinks, trying to aim it at the warm, comforting presence she’s been able to feel in the back of her mind since last night.

_Mmm_ , is all she receives back, but it sounds like J’onn, so she tries again.

_J’onn, we need to wake up_.

“No,” he protests, his arm tightening around her as though he’s trying to physically stop her from getting out of bed. 

_It’s kind of adorable that you’re not a morning person, y’know?_

In response he turns her around in his arms so she’s facing him and presses a quick kiss to her lips. “Please don’t use the word ‘adorable’ when referring to me, especially when I’m not awake yet,” he mumbles against her skin as his face burrows between the pillow and her hair.

Alex just pulls back slightly and strokes her fingers along his cheek, taking the time to enjoy how adorably grumpy he is in a morning. _Have you even noticed that I haven’t spoken out loud yet?_ , she thinks at him.

That gets him to open his eyes. _Oh_ , he thinks back at her. _Our connection is still open? I wasn’t sure if it would work without me thinking about it_.

“We’ll have to keep testing it throughout the day, but it’s certainly working now at least,” Alex smiles at him as he blinks sleepily. She carries on hesitantly, unsure of his reaction to what else she wants to say. “I should probably run some other tests today as well.”

J’onn looks confused again, although he’s clearly starting to wake up more. “Tests?”

“Yeah, I should probably see if, y’know, it’s possible,” she trails off, and when he still doesn’t quite catch on to her meaning, she slides his hand from its place on her hip around to her abdomen.

There’s a sudden barrage of his thoughts pressing at the edge of her mind and although she can’t quite hear each one clearly, she can definitely pick up the general tone. He _really_ likes the thought of getting her pregnant with his child. Before she can let herself get carried away, she quickly kisses him before rolling away and getting out of bed.

“That’s a view that I could really get used to in the morning,” J’onn says, propping himself up on one arm as he watches her walk naked across the room towards her small en-suite bathroom.

Alex smirks at him over her shoulder. “You could always join me for a shower.”

J’onn moves quickly, grabbing hold of her and carrying her into the shower, and Alex laughs as she plans all the other ways she can get him out of bed quickly in the future.

\---&\---

They both arrive at work later than usual, but Alex at least has the presence of mind to make sure they don’t arrive together. J’onn flies in about five minutes after she’s already arrived, and Alex tries not to smirk as Lucy innocently asks J’onn why he’s running so late. He gives a noncommittal answer and Alex tries not to stare at his ass as he walks off to his office. Hiding their relationship may be harder than she had initially anticipated, but if she was able to keep her involvement with the DEO a secret from her family for almost two years, then she’s determined that they’ll be able to do this.

Alex hides out in her lab for most of the next few days, running test after test on both her own biology and J’onn’s. They’d been so distracted while collecting some of the specimens she needed that they’d almost gotten caught with Alex’s hands down J’onn’s pants, so after that they decide to try to keep any contact during working hours to a minimum, at least for a few days until they can get a better handle on their hormones. They keep testing their ability to speak to each other telepathically, as well. Not only does the ability not fade, no matter how far away from each other they are, but it seems to strengthen as time goes by; they can easily send images and feelings after some practice.

It takes almost a week for Alex to covertly run every test she needs to, but it’s worth it. There are enough similarities between their biology that there’s no reason she shouldn’t be able to get pregnant and carry the child to term. And from the information she’s been able to get through discussions with J’onn, there shouldn’t be any random surprises along the way; the process of pregnancy and childbirth on Mars was close enough to on Earth that Alex shouldn’t need to worry about anything other than the usual concerns expectant mothers have, although they still have no idea whether their hypothetical child would have abilities or not.

J’onn tries to hide how happy he is about the possibility of creating a life with Alex, but she can feel his joy like a warm blanket enveloping her mind. Even though she’s never really seriously considered the possibility of kids before, the thought of having a child with J’onn just seems _right_ in a way she’s never expected.

They make the decision that, given their lifestyles and with everything going on right now, they won’t actively _try_ to get pregnant, but they also won’t do anything to _prevent_ it either. Let fate decide what happens.

Secretly though, they both know how much the other wants this.

Two weeks later, when Alex is two days late, she tries not to get her hopes up too much. She doesn’t want to get J’onn excited about the possibility yet, but he still picks up on her mood from her thoughts. She decides that she’ll run a pregnancy test by the end of the week, just to make sure before even saying the possibility out loud, but she knows that she wants it to be positive.

The next day, Alex starts her period.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't forget to subscribe to me or this fic to get updates when I add a new chapter, and please feel free to say hi on [tumblr](http://oddlyfamiliar.tumblr.com/)!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, now that season two has premiered, this is well and truly an AU! Hope everyone enjoyed 2x01 (I loved having Tyler Hoechlin back on my screen) and there were some adorable J'onn and Alex moments, so I'm happy.
> 
> This fic is now looking like it'll be five chapters in all. Chapter four is almost finished and chapter five is already started, so it shouldn't be too long a wait :)
> 
> Some tags are being updated now, but some I'm going to keep as a surprise still...

Their relationship doesn’t actually change all that much over the next few weeks. It’s almost surprising how… _not_ surprising it is. They’ve always been close and adding this extra element just fits in seamlessly. Alex knows herself well enough to admit that she’s been interested in J’onn romantically for a long time, so the only part that’s new is the part where they're actually having sex. They still talk, a lot; sometimes about Mars, sometimes about Alex’s family, sometimes about the tiny insignificant things that have happened to them during the day. It doesn’t take long at all for them to settle into being together, and they both try not to fixate on how disappointed they were at Alex not getting pregnant straight away. After all, there’s plenty of time in the future.

The only problem they have now is that they have no idea how to tell the people they love. 

Obviously they need to keep things quiet at work. Now that both Lucy and J’onn are running the DEO, they’ve split some of the duties up; J’onn is responsible for anything relating to the tracking and study of aliens and also the training and strategic planning for their operatives, whereas Lucy heads up the teams that liaise with other, more public, branches of the government as well as developing a team to look at the legal implications of having non-citizens detained on US soil. They’re even beginning to work with the government to start to figure out how to build the increasingly public nature of aliens into the country’s existing legal framework.

But more importantly, Lucy also manages the senior personnel on site.

Which means Alex no longer reports to J’onn as her CO. Which means, _technically_ , that there’s no conflict of interest in them being together. She knows that eventually they’re going to have to tell people at the DEO, especially Lucy, but they’ve both agreed that for now, they’d rather not have the extra attention focused on them.

That still leaves the tiny matter of what to tell Kara and her mom and all of their friends.

J’onn is certain that Kara is going to kill him for touching her sister, and no matter how many times Alex tells him he’s being silly, he’s still nervous about telling her. Alex, however, knows that the real threat is her mom, who just might actually attempt to kill J’onn, but she’s definitely not going to mention that to him.

By mutual agreement, they’ve decided to wait a little longer before they announce anything. Just to give them time to get used to things themselves first.

And definitely not because they’re both chickenshits when it comes to Alex’s family.

“Hey, Alex!” Kara yells through from the living room, and Alex snaps back to reality instead of trying to decide whether tonight's the night they should come clean. 

She grabs the bowl of chips from the kitchen island and walks through the archway separating her kitchen and living room, quickly surveying everyone in the room to make sure everyone’s okay. James and Kara are curled up on one end of the large sofa with Winn at the other end trying, unsuccessfully, to push Kara’s feet off his lap. Lucy is sitting cross legged on Alex’s overstuffed armchair, and J’onn is sitting at one end of her smaller sofa, trying not to make it obvious that he’s watching Alex’s every move.

“Is this what you were yelling for?” Alex gestures to the bowl in her hand and smiles at Kara as she leans forward to grab it before Alex can even set it down on the coffee table between everyone. Alex makes her way over to sit next to J’onn, careful to leave enough space between them to maintain the illusion of them just being friends and colleagues, no matter how much she wants to lean against him, and she takes another sip of her wine.

“Hey, where’s the dip?” Kara grumbles between mouthfuls of food, and Alex has no idea how James puts up with her when she’s this hungry. She was bad enough when she was a teenager, but now she’s expending so much energy being Supergirl, Alex knows that Kara eats even more than before. 

Before Alex can even start to move to go get the dip, J’onn jumps in. “You stay where you are, I’ll get it,” he says, before automatically putting a hand on Alex’s thigh to leverage himself up from his seat.

“Thanks, honey,” Alex mumbles as she takes another sip, and it honestly takes her a second to see that J’onn has stopped in his tracks and Kara, James, Lucy, and Winn have all whipped their heads around to stare at her. “Oh, shit.”

“Honey?” Kara mimics as she sits up and drops the bowl of chips onto the coffee table, her hunger apparently forgotten in the face of an opportunity to tease her big sister.

“Well that’s that cat out of the bag,” J’onn mutters as he turns around and sits right back down next to Alex, clearly preparing himself to face the firing squad in front of them with her.

_Sorry_ , Alex thinks at J’onn, _I’ll make it up to you later_.

_Don’t worry_ , his voice echoes in her mind, his amusement clear in his tone, _I can think of a lot of things you can do to make it up to me_. A sudden flash of Alex straddling J’onn while she’s wearing only lingerie flows through her mind, and Alex can’t help but smirk at him until she remembers that everyone else is waiting for an explanation.

“Um, surprise?” Alex tries, but it’s clear from her sister’s raised eyebrow that Kara isn’t going to settle for that as an answer. “J’onn and I are together. I’m sorry we didn’t tell you guys, we just… we wanted this to be private for a while, until we got used to it ourselves.”

Kara, James and Winn are all sitting opposite her with identical shocked expressions, but it’s the smug smile on Lucy’s face that catches Alex’s attention.

“God, it’s about time you two finally admitted it.”

James turns to her, his shock transforming into disbelief. “Wait, you knew about this?”

“Well, there’s always been that _tension_ between them, for as long as I’ve known them both, but I’m guessing things changed a little over a month ago?” Lucy turns to look at them both, her expression calculating as she guesses, alarmingly accurately, when their relationship had changed. All Alex can do is nod; she honestly thought they’d hidden things better than that.

“Tension? No no no, there’s never been any -- I would have _noticed_ if there was tension,” Kara says, clearly still struggling with the idea.

“No, you wouldn’t,” both Alex and Winn say in unison, and really there’s no way that Kara can argue against that. She just sits there in shock.

“Well, congratulations to you both,” James says, trying to subtly nudge Kara into actually saying something positive. 

Alex smiles at him but her attention is mostly on Kara, waiting to see what her reaction will be when she’s finished working through the surprise. Before Kara can say anything though, Alex feels J’onn shift his attention to the door.

_The food is here_ , he thinks at Alex, so she takes the opportunity to escape from the situation for a second. She stands up and walks over to the door, grabbing her purse from a side table on her way, and by the time she’s reached the door a knock sounds out from the other side. The delivery guy seems surprised at how quickly she opens the door, but it only takes another few moments before Alex is back in front of everyone, the food placed onto the table between them all.

“Wait, how did you know the delivery guy was here?” Kara asks, her eyes narrowing in suspicion as she looks at Alex. 

“J’onn told me,” Alex responds as she starts opening up some of the cartons so everyone can grab what they want, and it’s not until she registers the silence that she realizes she’s misspoken again.

Kara is flicking her gaze between J’onn and Alex, a frown on her face. “He didn’t say a word, Alex.”

“Yeah, we um, have this connection?” Alex gestures vaguely at their heads to try to explain what she means. “We can speak to each other in our minds.”

“Oh, that is so cool,” Winn says, sitting forward in his seat, clearly about to ask more questions about how it works, but Alex isn’t really in the mood for an interrogation right now.

“Let’s just eat and watch the movie, okay?” Alex says quickly before anyone else can say anything.

She grabs a plate for herself and J’onn, then concentrates on piling food onto them, trying to ignore how awkward the tension in the room suddenly feels to her. Alex can just see James nudge Kara again out of the corner of her eye, but she turns her attention to J’onn instead.

_Sorry, J’onn, I didn’t intend to tell them quite like this_ , she thinks.

_I know_ , he responds, sending warm feelings of support through to her, _but at least they know now. Are you okay?_

Alex turns to him and smiles. _Yeah, I’m okay. You?_

_I have you; I’ll always be okay_.

“I’m sorry, Alex, I didn’t mean to make things weird,” Kara suddenly speaks up, and Alex turns to her sister. She can see that Kara genuinely does look sorry and can feel herself let go of some of the tension she’s had building in the pit of her stomach. “I was just… surprised, that’s all. I honestly didn’t see this coming, but if you’re both happy then I’m ridiculously happy about this, too.”

Alex glances at J’onn, his soft smile making her feel steady again. “Yeah, we’re both really happy.”

Kara gets up from her seat and moves around the table towards her, so Alex stands up quickly, barely managing to move her plate of food out of the way before Kara flings her arms around her and squeezes gently. 

“I love you; we’re going to talk about how you didn’t tell me about this for, like, a whole month, but I love you anyway,” Kara murmurs in her ear, and the last little bit of tension slides away from Alex.

“I love you, too,” she whispers back, and clings to Kara for a few more seconds.

Kara pulls back and spins around to face J’onn. “And you… you get a hug, too.” She bends down to fling her arms around J’onn’s neck, and Alex can’t help but grin at how surprised, yet _happy_ , J’onn looks as he returns the hug with one arm, the other trying to balance his plate of food. He must have really been worrying about Kara’s reaction, maybe even more so than Alex herself, and it’s clear that he’s relieved that Kara seems to be genuinely happy about them. 

“Okay, enough revelations for tonight; I’m hungry,” Kara says as she makes her way back to her seat.

Alex rolls her eyes at J’onn, but she’s happy for the conversation to be over. She sits back down, a lot closer to J’onn than earlier in the evening, and starts eating again, relaxing back into her seat.

Kara pauses chewing for a moment and makes a noise as though she’s just thought of something urgent. “Oh, have you told Eliza yet? Can I be there to see her face if you haven’t?”

And suddenly Alex is tense again.

“No and no,” J’onn jumps in, frowning at Kara in that adorably grumpy way he has. He suddenly turns the frown on Alex, and she realizes that she accidentally projected that thought to him.

_Stop frowning at me; you_ are _adorable_.

_We’ll see who’s ‘adorable’ later_ , he retorts, a small smirk on his lips.

“Oh my god, how did I not see this earlier?” Kara mutters, shaking her head in mock-disgust at them. “You were totally doing a telepathic thing there weren’t you?”

Before Alex can respond, Lucy speaks up. “How about we start the movie, maybe give Alex and J’onn a few minutes of peace so they can eat?”

J’onn leans forward to press play, and when he sits back, Alex curls in closer to him. She glances out of the corner of her eye as everyone settles back with their food, their attention firmly focused on her TV, and she lets herself relax for the first time in a while. She’s with her family and friends, there are no more secrets to feel guilty about, and she can curl up in J’onn’s arms.

Life feels pretty good.

\---&\---

That feeling barely lasts two days before the next disaster hits, and they’re all being pulled in every direction trying to find the latest villain determined to make National City it’s home. Kara’s cousin even ends up flying in to help, given that he’s already faced this particular alien before, but it still takes longer than Alex would prefer to get everything under control.

 _Are you okay?_ she hears J’onn ask quietly in the back of her mind. 

_Yeah, I just…_ Alex trails off as she glances across the DEO at where Kara, Clark, and James are all huddled together, laughing and joking in the aftermath of a hard won victory. _I know it’s stupid, but sometimes I feel…_

_Envious?_ J’onn guesses, and Alex would be mad at how well he knows her, except that’s one of the things she loves most about him. She can tell that he’s not judging her for her irrational emotions, and it helps to settle her a little further.

_Yeah. I know it’s silly, and he’s her blood relative and all, but he wasn’t always there for her when we were growing up. And I know he has his reasons, really_ good _reasons, but I can’t help how I feel_.

J’onn walks around the desk to stand close to her, his hand gently pressing against her hip to offer some comfort, while still being out-of-sight enough to not look obvious if anyone looks over at them. _Don’t worry, I understand how you feel. And I think you might not be the only one feeling a little left out_.

Alex turns to J’onn, her face clearly showing her confusion, because he just subtly nods over towards the main control desk where Winn is sitting. He’s watching the trio as well, clearly trying not to look like he’s feeling left out and yet not quite managing it.

_Kara always has been a little oblivious when it comes to Winn’s feelings_ , Alex responds. _Ever since everything that happened with Siobhan, he’s been out of it. I’m pretty sure the only reason he’s still working at CatCo is so he can be there to help Kara out with her Supergirl duties_.

J’onn hums quietly in his throat, a soft considering sound, and Alex wonders what he’s planning. 

_Have you heard that Vasquez is considering that promotion?_ he says, and for a second the segue confuses Alex.

_Heading up that task force in Metropolis? She mentioned that she was offered it, but I didn’t know she was considering it. Why?_

J’onn just gives her a small smile. _Well, if she decides to take up the opportunity, we’ll have a space on the control team. And really, we’re in desperate need of a computer expert…_

“Oh!” Alex says out loud, completely forgetting that they’ve been communicating silently up until this point. The sound seems to break Kara out of her bubble and Alex can see her encourage James and Clark to move back over towards the main desk to join them.

_Do you think he’d be interested?_ J’onn asks her, and Alex glances over at Winn. She hasn’t known him long, but she’s pretty certain that he’d leap at the chance. Alex nods back at J’onn just as Kara, James, and Clark get to them, and she can see Winn start to make his way over as well.

“I hate it when you two do that,” Kara says, her eyes narrowed mock-suspiciously.

“You just don’t like it when you’re out of the loop on gossip,” Alex fires back, a small smile on her face. She wants to talk to Winn about J’onn’s idea before announcing it in front of anyone else.

Clark looks baffled as he glances between them. “You hate it when they do what?”

“Their whole ‘telepathic communication’ thing,” Kara explains with a soft eyeroll. She’s been taking great delight in gently teasing both Alex and J’onn over the last two days since finding out, and as much as Alex pretends to be annoyed, she secretly loves how it solidifies their roles as sisters, as _family_ , even when Kara’s blood-relation is standing in front her.

“Telepathic communication?” Clark glances between her and J’onn. “How can-- wait, is this what you told me about, J’onn?”

Alex can feel J’onn shift slightly beside her, almost as though he’s mildly embarrassed. “Yes.”

Clark looks delighted suddenly, and Alex has no idea what’s going on here, except he suddenly frowns as though he’s realizing something and it’s right at that second that Alex remembers he doesn’t actually know about the two of them being together. He gestures rapidly between them, “I thought you said that could only happen with a human when-- _oh_. Oh, you two are… y’know?”

“Yes,” J’onn says again, before adding, “however we’re keeping things quiet at the moment.”

“Oh, right, yeah,” Clark says, nodding and grinning like an idiot, and despite how envious she can sometimes feel about his place in her sister’s life, she can’t help but admit that she likes him. He’s so similar to Kara, the both of them are just so _good_ , that she can’t help being won over by his genuine happiness right now. “Congratulations to you both,” he adds quietly.

Alex still wants to know what he was about to say earlier, but before she gets chance to question J’onn, Kara speaks up first. “What were you about to say about their mind thing?”

Clark looks flustered for a moment, as though he’s worried he’s revealed something he shouldn’t have, and Alex is about a million times more curious now. He glances towards J’onn, clearly questioning whether or not he should answer his cousin’s question.

“He was about to say that a connection like this one, like Alex and I have, it usually only happens between…” he trails off for a moment, as though he’s trying to think of the right word to explain it. Whether or not he realizes it, he’s projecting his thoughts to her, so she hears a medley of _partners-soulmates-husbandandwife_ , but he can’t seem to settle on a word to explain their relationship.

Alex decides to help him out, and she picks the one that feels right. “Soul mates.”

J’onn snaps his gaze to her, the love practically pouring out of his eyes as he stares at. “Soul mates,” he agrees. Alex is vaguely aware that they’re just standing there, staring into each other’s eyes, but she can’t stop looking at him right now.

“Oh god, you two are just as bad as they are,” Winn grumbles, jerking his thumb towards Kara and James, and his gentle mocking breaks the moment. 

Alex smirks at him, before deciding now is as good a time as any to see whether he’d be interested in working for the DEO. “Actually, I need to speak to you in private, Winn.”

“Please don’t kill me, I was only kidding!” he exclaims, but Alex walks around the table and grabs hold of his arm, tugging him out of the main control room. 

Just before they’re out of earshot, Alex hears Kara speak. “She’s not actually gonna kill him, is she?”

J’onn laughs. “Probably not.”

Winn turns panicked eyes towards her and Alex can’t stop herself from winking at him playfully. “Don’t worry, it won’t hurt too much.”

_Stop torturing the poor boy_ , J’onn laughs in her mind, and Alex decides to put him out of his misery. As soon as they’re in an out-of-the-way office, she lets go of his arm.

“I have a proposition for you…”

\---&\---

Alex was right; Winn leaps at the opportunity. He’s been severely under-utilized at CatCo, and their loss is the government’s gain. He fits in well with the rest of the team and he seems to genuinely enjoy getting to stretch his mind a little. The team is hit hard when Vasquez announces that she’s going to take up the promotion in Metropolis, but Alex knows they’re all supporting her decision. Losing a member of their little family is never easy, but she’s thankful that it’s actually for a good reason this time, and not because something has gone wrong on a mission.

Clark only stays for another day after their latest victory before he needs to get back home to maintain his cover. As much as he initially distrusts the DEO, and the government in general, despite the fact that he’s known who J’onn really is for longer than the rest of them, he seems to be slowly coming around to the idea of working alongside them. Not quite in the same way that Kara does, but Alex will take what she can get right now. It helps that they have one of their own leading the exploratory task force in Metropolis; once Clark realized it was Vasquez that was going to be in his city, he seemed to relax a little further. 

Things settle into a routine over the next few weeks. Without even realizing it, J’onn seems to have mostly moved into Alex’s apartment. They spend every night there together, and Alex isn’t even sure when he last went back to his place. They haven’t spoken about it yet but she’s not worried; she knows exactly how he feels about her, and he knows how she feels about him. It’s so easy to be with him, their relationship just seems to feel so _right_ , and Alex knows that sooner or later they’ll have the official ‘moving in together’ conversation, but until then she’s just going to enjoy what they have.

A quiet noise behind her alerts her to J’onn’s presence in the kitchen just before he steps close behind her and wraps his arms around her waist.

“Morning,” he rumbles into her neck, pressing a quick kiss there.

“Morning,” she replies, turning her face so she can reach his lips and drop a kiss on his mouth. “You ready for breakfast?”

He leans over her shoulder and looks down at the eggs and bacon she’s cooking, his stomach rumbling and giving away his answer before he can speak. Alex can’t help but grin at him; she can’t eat something like this at this time in the morning, but she knows how many calories he can eat in a day, so she’s started to get into the routine of making him a big breakfast in the morning, then she grabs some fruit to eat on their way into work. 

“Is this my shirt?” J’onn asks instead, his fingers dipping under the hem to trace along the skin of her hip, drawing a line along the waistband of her panties.

“Mmhmm,” she confirms, leaning back a little further into his embrace and taking the pan off the heat, before turning everything off. She places his food onto a plate and tries to turn around in his arms to pass it to him, but he holds her steady with one hand on her hip.

“I like it when you wear my clothes,” he murmurs between kisses down her neck, and Alex can feel the familiar tingle of her arousal crash into full-blown desire. She drops the plate back down onto the counter and twists her arm around behind her so she can grab hold of his ass and pull him tightly against her. He’s wearing sweatpants but nothing else, so the outline of his erection is clearly defined as he grinds against her ass.

“J’onn, if we’re doing this then we need to do it quickly, because Kara is coming round this morning with donuts,” she says, rocking her hips back against his.

He doesn’t bother responding, he just turns them both so that Alex is facing the kitchen island instead of the cooker and he places her hands on the edge, clearly indicating that she should keep them there. He lifts the shirt she’s wearing a little higher, so he can see her black cotton panties underneath. She can feel, deep in the back of her mind, how much the sight of her in her normal, day-to-day underwear is affecting him. There’s a level of comfort and domesticity there that she knows hits him right in the gut, and she can tell that all he wants to do is drag her back to bed with him and hold her for hours, filling her over and over again.

“Another time,” she gasps at him, tilting her hips back again to prod him into actually _doing_ something.

He pulls her panties down her thighs, letting them drop down to her ankles. “Spread your legs for me, Alex.”

_Fuck_ , just hearing him say that gets her so wet. She unhooks one ankle from her panties, leaving them tangled around the other, and spreads her legs wide. Alex shivers slightly with anticipation and dips down so she’s leaning her forearms against the island, her ass sticking out. 

J’onn runs his hands around her hips, her lower back, across her ass and down her thighs. Everywhere he touches leaves a tingling sensation in his wake and Alex shifts a little, rising up on her tiptoes to push herself into his grip more. She can hear a slight rustling of clothing, then suddenly his hard cock is pressing against her ass cheek and smearing precome along her skin.

“Hold on,” J’onn grunts at her and that’s all the warning Alex gets before he’s sliding into her, one slow and steady thrust until he’s all the way in. It’s a stretch and she probably isn’t quite ready enough, but she doesn’t care because he feels so fucking good inside her right now. She curls one hand around the edge of the island just in time to stop herself from being pushed forwards as J’onn withdraws then slams back inside her and _fuck_ Alex can’t stop herself from moaning loudly at how good that feels.

“C’mon, J’onn. Fuck me like you mean it,” she goads him, knowing that he’s holding back so he doesn’t hurt her. 

He flattens his palm against her lower back, pushing her down a little more, enough that her face is almost pressed against the surface of the island, and forcing her to lift higher on her tiptoes. She’s barely balanced, but she knows that he won’t let her fall. Instead, he tortures her by sliding slowly, _oh so slowly_ , out of her before pushing back in gently. Alex squirms back against him, trying to push her hips back against his to speed up his thrusts, but he just keeps her pinned between the counter and his cock, unable to get his thrusts as fast and hard as she craves them. 

“Please, _please_ , god,” Alex begs, her nerve endings on fire at the slow drag of him pushing in and out of her. 

It seems like all he was waiting for was her to say please, because he reaches over her to curl his hand over her shoulder, then uses the leverage to fuck into her hard and fast, his pace furious and unrelenting, and all Alex can do is try to hold on and not scream as he drives her insane. The sound of his hips slapping against her ass is loud and obscene, the noise echoing off the tile and accompanied by grunts from J’onn and moans from Alex that neither of them can keep quiet.

The sudden change of pace is enough to push her to the edge of her orgasm, it’s right there, just out of reach, but Alex can’t move to touch herself. She’s desperate for _something_ to tip her over, but she doesn’t even know what it is that she needs. J’onn seems to know though, because he uses his grip on her shoulder to pull her back up towards him, lifting her so she’s stood upright. He keeps on thrusting in and out of her, tilting his hips a little to adjust to the new angle, and Alex can feel her legs shaking as she tries to hold herself upright while he fucks her.

J’onn leans her back against her chest, his thrusts shallower now, and wraps his arms around her, one hand sliding down to press against her clit. He barely touches her before it’s suddenly all too much and Alex clenches down hard against him as she comes, and it's so hot and intense that she can feel her legs buckle. J’onn keeps hold of her and rocks into her a few more times before he pauses and comes, his dick pulsing into her.

His breath is loud in her ear and his heartbeat feels like it’s pounding through her body; she feels so connected to him right now, that it’s almost as though they’re one entity. She slumps back against him, her head leaning back against his shoulder, and shifts uncomfortably as he pulls out of her. 

She’s just about to lean against the island counter so that she can tug her panties back up her legs when everything goes wrong.

“Oh my _GOD_ , Alex!” Kara’s voice is loud in the sudden quiet of the kitchen, and Alex is mortified to realize that Kara is stood in the open archway with her eyes desperately scrunched closed. The island will have prevented her from being able to see that J’onn’s sweatpants are still halfway down his thighs and her panties are twisted around one of her ankles, but it’s pretty obvious what she’s just interrupted, regardless. 

“Kara! Why didn’t you knock?” Alex demands, the shock turning her voice high and loud, and she quickly leans down to pull her underwear up. J’onn follows suit with his sweatpants, but he’s not wearing a shirt and is clearly massively uncomfortable about being half-naked in front of her sister when they’ve just been caught having sex. 

“I’m just gonna… yeah,” J’onn gestures over his shoulder towards the bedroom, then makes his escape through the only doorway, while Kara rushes out of the way and tries not to look at him.

And that just leaves her alone with her sister.

Fuck.

“I did knock!” Kara shouts, putting the donuts on the island before she crushes the box any more than she already has. “I was on the phone to James,” she gestures to the phone in her other hand, “and I was distracted so I wasn’t really listening to what was going on and I _really_ didn’t want to see any of that.”

“Okay, this isn’t the first time one of us has accidentally walked in on the other, so we can get over this, right?” Alex says, desperately aware of the fact that she can feel J’onn’s come inside her and trying not to squirm to make it obvious that she needs to go and get cleaned up.

“Yeah but you weren’t having sex with your boss, with one of _my_ bosses, then!” Kara exclaims. 

“Oh my god, okay, I see your point. However, this is _my_ apartment, so y’know, there are gonna be times when J’onn and I are, y’know, _together_ , and I refuse to be embarrassed about that.”

Kara takes off her glasses and puts them on the island counter before rubbing her hands across her eyes. “You’re right. And I know you’re right. But I’m still freaking out a little over walking in on my big sister and our boss having sex, so y’know, just bear with me a few minutes.”

“Yeah… I’m just gonna get dressed while you deal with that.”

Kara laughs at her. “Yeah, I’m just gonna go be in _any_ other room than this one.”

Alex can feel her lips twist into a smile, and she knows that they’ll be okay once they’ve all recovered from the shock. She walks into their bedroom to find J’onn, fully dressed now, laying back on the bed with one arm flung over his eyes.

“You okay there, honey?”

“No,” he responds. “I’m just going to go fly into the sun for a minute.”

Alex huffs a laugh at how overly dramatic he can be, then climbs onto the bed next to him, her knees pressed against his side. She tugs his arm down away from his eyes so that she can actually see him. “Hey.”

“Hey,” he says back, turning slightly to face her. “Is everything okay between you two?”

Alex nods at him, her fingers absently trailing down his arm. “Yeah, we’re okay. I’m just going to grab a quick shower and get dressed, then I’ll be ready to go. You should go eat your breakfast before it gets any colder.”

J’onn grimaces. “I’m waiting in here for you; there’s no way I’m going out there to face your sister on my own.”

Alex laughs at him again. “Coward,” she mocks, then leans over him to press a quick kiss to his lips. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

She hops off the bed and heads into the shower, determined not to leave them alone for too long.

It takes two weeks before Kara can even look at J’onn without blushing and stuttering. 

It’s another week after that before J’onn can look at Kara without cringing.

\---&\---

Alex leans against the main desk in the control room at the DEO, her eyes skimming over the screens in front of her, trying to take in as much information as she can. Their latest prisoner had been captured easily, too easily, and Alex is certain that there’s something else going on that they just haven’t figured out yet. It’s late and almost everyone else has gone home already, but Alex just can’t get the niggling worry out of the back of her mind.

She turns around and walks back over to the round table where J’onn and Kara are looking over the files spread out in front of them, deep in conversation as they debate whether or not they missed something.

Just as Alex gets close to him, J’onn suddenly stops mid sentence and frowns. He glances over at Kara, who also looks confused, before speaking again. “Can you hear…?”

“Yeah, it’s like… I don’t know, like a fluttering sound? Where’s it coming from?” Kara looks around, clearly trying to identify the source, but Alex can’t hear anything so it must be incredibly quiet.

Alex watches as J’onn closes his eyes and concentrates, leaning against the table while he tries to locate where the sound is coming from. Kara starts to move around the room, clearly trying to find where the sound is loudest, so Alex stands still and tries not to make too much noise while they focus.

“I can’t… it’s too quiet, I don’t know where it’s coming from,” Kara sounds frustrated as she turns to J’onn, and it’s his absolute silence that makes Alex turn towards him too. He’s staring at her, a look of awe and love on his face, but Alex can’t work out why. They usually try to keep their relationship away from work given that only Kara, Lucy, and Winn know about them, which means they try not to look at each other the way he’s definitely looking at her right now.

“J’onn?” she asks quietly, before glancing over at Kara to see if she can get any answers from her. Kara still looks confused for a second until she really looks at Alex, and then her hand flies up to her mouth to try to cover her loud gasp.

“Oh Rao, is that…?” Kara trails off and Alex is starting to get really frustrated now, because all J’onn does is nod mutely.

“Okay, what’s going on? Why are you two freaking out?” Alex questions, and she can hear the slightly hysterical note in her voice, but they’re starting to make her panic. Whatever it is they can hear obviously has something to do with her, but they’re not being particularly forthcoming with answers.

“Alex,” J’onn says softly, still looking at her with utter reverence. He takes a few steps closer towards her and reaches his hand out to wrap his fingers around hers. “Do you remember the conversation we had a few months ago? When things first… _changed_ between us?”

Alex thinks back, tries to work out what he could be referencing, because she’s trying to piece things together and it’s just not making sense.

Until his other hand rests gently against her abdomen.

“There's another heart beating inside you,” he says. 

_Oh_.

They both glance down at where his fingers are stretched out across her belly and Alex feels like her pulse has just gone into overdrive. “I’m pregnant?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to say hi over on [tumblr](http://oddlyfamiliar.tumblr.com/), and please let me know your thoughts in the comments! :)


	4. Chapter 4

It takes three days before the shock wears off and panic sets in. Alex has no idea how to look after a baby. She hasn’t even held one in years, not since her mom had asked her to help out by babysitting for a neighbor back when she was a teenager and _oh god her mom_. Alex hasn’t even told her about J’onn yet, and now she’s got to tell her she’s pregnant too?

Her mom is going to kill her.

No; her mom is going to kill _J’onn_.

Alex turns over in bed, unable to sleep and feeling restless. She knows she’s being silly; pretty much every first-time mom has the same worries and fears, but knowing that doesn’t stop her from feeling like she’s going to mess this up. Add in the fact that the baby growing inside her is half-Martian, and there’s no wonder that she can’t sleep.

“Is everything okay?” J’onn mumbles quietly from next to her. His face is still pressed into his pillow, but his eyes are open and watching her.

Alex shifts over a little more so her face is next to his. “I’m just worrying over nothing, go back to sleep.”

“It’s okay to be worried, Alex. I’m worried, too. It’s a perfectly normal reaction.”

“I know, I just… we’re going to have a lot more to deal with than most parents do. We’re not sure if our kid will have powers or not, everything is so crazy in the world right now when it comes to alien rights, and we still need to actually tell my mom about this,” she gestures between the two of them.

J’onn looks nervous at the mention of her mom, but he shifts to pull her into his arms, stroking a soothing hand down her back and encouraging her to rest her head in the crook of his neck. “We can handle all of that though. As long as both of you are healthy, everything else will work out. Even your mom. She’ll probably be surprised at first, but she’ll come around; she loves you.”

Alex leans back a little to raise an eyebrow at him. “Just you wait until we have to tell her that you got me knocked up. Let’s see how brave you are then,” she teases, before snuggling back up close to him again.

“You’re gonna protect me though, right?” J’onn says, pressing a gentle kiss to the top of her head. Alex laughs, her breath puffing out across the sensitive skin of his neck and causing him to shiver against her. 

Talking about it has helped her calm down a little, but her biggest fear is still lurking in the back of her mind, and she doesn’t know how to even say it outloud. Their connection doesn’t let her hide much from him for long, though.

“You’re worried about Project Cadmus?” J’onn asks, before he tugs her even closer, almost like he’s trying to make sure that nothing can possibly get to her or their child without going through him first. 

Alex sighs. “There’s so much we don’t know about them. They wanted to torture you and run experiments on you, and we already know they were willing to do it to me, too. If they find out about the baby, about something that’s half-human and half-Martian, who knows what they’d do.”

J’onn runs a hand down her back again, clearly trying to give her some comfort. “I worry about that, too,” he admits. “I’m not going to let anything happen. I won’t lose you, either of you.”

The tears start falling before she even realizes that they’re there. He’s lost so much already, and the thought that he might have to go through that again makes her heart ache for him. Alex lifts herself up slightly so she can press a desperate kiss to his lips, needing to show him how much she loves him.

“I can’t lose you, either,” she says, trying to hold back her tears. J’onn cups her face and gently runs his thumb along her cheek, trying to wipe away the tears that escape.

“I love you,” he murmurs, his voice deep and quiet and soothing, and Alex feels the familiar burst of warmth in the back of her mind as he tries to make sure she knows the depth of his feelings.

“I love you, too,” Alex whispers against his lips as he kisses her, and it’s like a switch has flipped between them and they’re suddenly grabbing at each other frantically, their hands roaming across every inch of each other’s skin that they can reach. 

J’onn rolls her over onto her back and settles between her thighs, and Alex can feel that he’s already hard. His cock is pressing against the curve of her hip, but Alex needs him inside her. She needs to feel him completely, needs him to be as close to her as he can get. She squirms until she can tug her shorts and panties down, her knee nudging into J’onn’s side to encourage him to move back slightly until she can kick the material down past her feet, then she pushes the waistband of his sleep pants over his erection and down his hips. 

He leans back over her, holding himself up maybe an inch above her, his hard cock resting heavily against her mons. Alex pulls her knees up so she can hook her feet over his hips, her heels digging into his ass, trying to get him to thrust into her. He takes the hint. J’onn leans his weight on his left forearm, his right hand coming up to brush the hair out of her face and cup her cheek as he presses a soft, slow kiss to her open lips. He withdraws his hips slightly, just far enough that his cock drags down her skin, moving closer to her entrance.

“J’onn,” she breathes his name out against his lips, her right arm wrapped around his waist, keeping him close to her. She moves her left hand further down, slips it into the tiny gap between their hips, and takes hold of his erection, guiding him down until the head is pressed right where she wants him.

He doesn’t make her wait. J’onn thrusts forward gently, the mood shifting slightly into something a little slower, a little more intense, and Alex’s eyes flutter shut as she feels every single inch of him push inside her. 

“Look at me, Alex,” he says softly, his hand trailing down her cheek, over her jaw and throat, his fingers dancing across her collarbone. She opens her eyes and stares into his, their breathing in sync as his hand keeps moving down, grazing the side of her breast and causing a shiver to run through her as her nipples tighten. He reaches the bottom of her tank top and slides his hand under it, the material gathering at his wrist and rucking up as he splays his hand across her abdomen, right over where their baby is growing inside her. 

J’onn holds her gaze as he shifts his hips back. The friction of his cock pulling out of her is setting her nerve endings on fire, but before she can even make a sound, he’s pushing back in again. He’s moving a little faster now, in and out, over and over again, but he’s still being gentle with her. The caress of his mind enveloping hers, in time with his thumb stroking across her belly, is all too much. Alex feels like she’s losing her mind, the pleasure building too slowly, too intensely, for her to really process. 

Her hands scratch at his back, trying to get some purchase so she can move her hips up to meet his, but instead, J’onn shifts his weight again, moving so he can catch hold of one of her arms. He runs his fingers up the sensitive skin of her underarm until he reaches her wrist, then he links his fingers between her own, pinning her hand down on the pillow beside her head. The connection between them spikes, like a bolt of lightning arcing between them, and suddenly everything feels frantic again. His hips move faster, harder, pounding into her like she needs, and Alex can hear the moans as they hitch and catch in her throat. 

“Fuck, J’onn, _please_ ,” she pants out against his mouth, her lips opening slightly to catch his bottom lip between hers and lightly sucking on the flesh.

“Yeah, _yeah_ , okay,” J’onn murmurs, before he lets go of her hand and quickly slides his fingers down to grab at her hip, altering the angle he’s fucking her at slightly, but just enough that it causes Alex’s head to arch back in pleasure. He takes advantage straight away, his lips pressing hot, open-mouthed kisses down her neck, his teeth catching against her skin in a way that makes her shiver and get just that little bit wetter.

He pushes his hand between them, his hand cupping her mound as his thumb drops lower, searching for her clit. He finds it quickly, and sets up a fast pace, stroking her over and over while he keeps thrusting into her, his mouth sucking hard against her throat. He’s going to leave a mark, a bright and livid bruise, and it’s that knowledge that tips her over; the thought of wearing his mark for everyone to see hits a kink she didn’t even know she had, and Alex arches hard against him as she comes. 

J’onn grunts loudly and shifts so he can kiss her mouth, his tongue sliding against hers as his hips freeze, his cock twitching as he comes inside her, each pulse echoing in the back of her mind as a shiver.

He stays inside her for a moment as they both catch their breath, and maybe it’s the fact that she’s said some of her fears out loud, or maybe it’s being so connected to J’onn, but Alex feels like her mind might have quieted down enough to get some sleep. He carefully pulls out of her, then gets up off the bed, his feet padding quietly over the carpet as he heads over to the en suite to clean himself up. Alex lets her eyes close for a moment as she relaxes further into her pillow. It’s barely a minute before J’onn’s coming back out of the bathroom, a damp cloth in his hand so he can clean her up, too.

Three minutes later, he’s back in bed, curling up behind her and splaying his hand across her still-flat stomach. Alex falls asleep to the soothing feel of his thumb slowly skimming back and forth over her skin, and the gentle caress of his breathing against the back of his neck.

The last thing she remembers is feeling safe and warm and loved.

\---&\---

It’s another week before Alex gets up the nerve to arrange a visit with her mom, and only half of her reason for delaying was due to the vivid hickey across the base of her throat. Alex figured it probably wasn’t the best way to advertise their relationship to her mom, and J’onn had sheepishly agreed.

She’s been busy as well; Alex hasn’t exactly been able to visit a normal OB-GYN, so she’s been spending her time performing her normal DEO duties as well as secretly running some of the more standard tests on herself to check that everything is going okay. As far as she can tell, she’s approximately eight weeks pregnant now. Other than Kara, no one else knows, and Alex wants to wait as long as possible before they tell anyone else, other than her mom. The people closest to them, James and Lucy and Winn and even Clark, will all know that J’onn is the father. Outside of that group, J’onn and Alex have decided that no one needs to know, not until they have a better handle on what kind of reach Project Cadmus has. If anyone questions her, they’ve already decided to say that the father isn’t in the picture, and just leave it at that. 

The only problem is what to do about medical help. Given their specialities, both Alex and her mom have more than a rudimentary understanding of the biological processes involved, but Alex is well aware of the limitations of her own understanding about the complexities of pregnancy and childbirth. And that’s before throwing in the fact that the baby is half-Martian. Alex is hoping that her mom might have some ideas about what they can do about that problem, because the only other option would be to place a _lot_ of trust in one of the DEO doctors, which is potentially a very risky move.

Either way, Alex knows she can’t delay telling her mom any longer. It’s only been about twenty minutes since she called her and told her that she and J’onn would be coming over within the hour, but already Alex feels sick to her stomach with nerves. It’s that thought that brings a fresh wave of panic over her, causing J’onn to look up from the reports he’s managed to scatter all over her coffee table.

“What’s wrong?” 

“I haven’t had any morning sickness,” Alex says, worry causing her to pace up and down the living area. “What if there’s something wrong? Shouldn’t I be feeling sick by now?”

“Not everyone does, don’t worry,” J’onn reassures her. “It was the same on Mars, some women felt nauseated during pregnancy, others didn’t. M'yri'ah was absolutely fine when she had K'hym, but then she was sick often when she carried T'ania.”

Alex lets out a long, slow breath, trying to get herself back under control. “You’re right, I know you’re right. I just…” she trails off, trying to explain how she feels.

“I know; you’re going through something that no one else on Earth has been through, Alex. It’s okay to panic and be worried about things,” he gets up and walks over in front of her, stopping her pacing, and he puts his hands on her cheeks, his thumbs stroking gently across her skin. “We just need to keep talking to each other about things like this. We’re a team; we’re in this together.”

Alex smiles at him and wraps her arms around his waist, resting her head against his chest. “We should probably go face this next crisis as a team then; let’s go tell my mom about us.”

J’onn laughs, and the sound rumbles through his chest. “C’mere,” he murmurs, then kisses her when she tilts her face up towards his. “Are you ready?”

“Mmmhmm,” Alex hums her affirmation against his lips, tightening her arms around him as she feels her feet leave the floor. J’onn shifts his hold to make sure she’s secure, then he flies them towards her mom’s house, travelling slower than usual and it makes Alex smile when she realizes it’s so that she doesn’t get sick.

It’s barely ten minutes later when he gently sets her down on the porch outside her childhood home, and Alex opens her eyes again.

“Okay,” she says, taking a deep breath. “Let’s do this.”

Alex turns towards the front door just as her mom opens it up and ushers them inside quickly.

“Is everything okay?” Eliza says, panic lacing her voice. “Is it Kara? Did something happen?”

Suddenly Alex realizes that her calling out of the blue must have sounded like something had gone wrong, so she tries to reassure her that everything is okay. “No, no, everything’s fine with Kara,” she says, leading her through into the living room, J’onn trailing behind them. “Here, sit down, mom.”

“Is it-- is it about your father? Have you found him?”

Alex sits down next to her mom while J’onn sits in the armchair opposite, and tries to salvage how disastrously wrong the conversation is already going. “No, it’s not about dad, either. We haven’t been able to find out much about Project Cadmus yet, but we’re still working on it.”

“Oh, okay, it’s just… it sounded like there was something urgent when you called. Is everything okay?” Eliza leans over to hold onto Alex’s hand, clearly trying to give her some comfort for what she believes is about to be some bad news.

“Yeah, everything’s okay. Everything’s great, actually. I, well, _we_ , have some news for you,” Alex says, her eyes flicking over to J’onn, and she can feel his support flow over her like a wave. Eliza frowns slightly, looking between Alex and J’onn as she tries to work out what’s going on. “J’onn and I are together.”

There’s a moment of silence where her mom just sits there, and it’s clear that she’s not sure what Alex means. “Together?” she asks.

“Yeah, mom,” Alex answers, but Eliza is still clearly confused, so Alex clarifies. “Romantically; we’re together romantically. We’re dating.”

Her mom’s eyebrows shoot up and Eliza looks genuinely shocked, as though she’d assumed that Alex meant literally anything other than that. “You’re dating?” Eliza questions, still glancing between the two as though she’s expecting this to be a really bizarre practical joke.

“Yes,” Alex says, trying to stay patient while her mom works through this. “We’re happy, and we’d really like it if you could be happy for us, too.”

“Oh, Alex, of course I want you to be happy, I’m just… a little surprised, is all,” Eliza grips Alex’s hand tighter. “I didn’t expect this,” she adds, turning to J’onn, “it’s just that you’re…”

“An alien?” J’onn finishes, and Alex tries not to be disappointed that her mom is hung up on that fact. It’s probably going to make for an interesting conversation when she adds that she’s pregnant with a half-alien baby.

“No, no,” her mom rushes to correct him, “I raised an alien as my own child, that’s not… I just meant that you’re so much older than Alex.”

“Oh,” Alex is surprised, but grateful, that her mom really does seem to be okay with the whole alien part, “it’s not really something that bothers us, mom.”

“Okay,” Eliza nods, then pulls Alex into her arms, squeezing her tightly, “I really am happy for you both.”

_That went better than I thought it would_ , J’onn says in her mind, his relief palpable.

_Yeah, just wait for this next bit though_ , Alex warns him, trying not to get her hopes up until everything is out on the table.

Alex pulls back from the hug and takes hold of her mom’s hand again. “That’s not everything, though. There’s something else we need to tell you,” she says, then decides to rip the bandaid off quickly. “I’m pregnant.”

There’s another moment of silence while Eliza tries to process that, and Alex tries not to panic about how she’s going to react.

“You’re… oh my god,” Eliza says, standing up and walking over to the other side of the room, her brain obviously working hard to process the news. “You’re… I’m going to be a grandma, Alex. I’m going to… oh my _god_ , Alex!” Eliza hurries back over towards her and pulls her up off the couch and into a hug. “Oh my god, I can’t believe it!”

Alex can feel the tears welling up already, mostly out of sheer relief that her mom actually seems to be happy for them. “Are you okay with this?”

“Am I oka-- Alex, oh my god I’m so happy about this, you’re happy about this right?” Eliza glances between both Alex and J’onn, suddenly wondering if her reaction was the right one.

“Yes, mom,” Alex rolls her eyes gently. “We’re very happy about this.”

“In that case, get over here,” Eliza gestures towards J’onn and waits until he’s stood next to Alex before she sweeps them both into a giant hug.

_And you thought she was going to kill me_ , J’onn teases her, as he returns her mom’s hug.

_I’m just as shocked as you are_ , Alex responds, but her mom’s reaction has finally put to rest the biggest worry that had been lurking in the back of her mind. Mysterious Project Cadmus agents bursting in during the night and trying to kidnap her is something she could deal with, it’s something she could fight against. If her mom had reacted badly to this… well, Alex isn’t sure she’d have been able to deal with that quite as well.

“How far along are you?” Eliza asks, her face still pressed between Alex and J’onn, so Alex moves back out of the hug and encourages everyone to sit back down again, this time with J’onn right next to her. 

Alex takes hold of one of J’onn’s hands, happy that she doesn’t have to hide their relationship any more. “I think I’m about eight weeks, but I can’t exactly go to see a normal doctor, so I’ve had to run tests myself.”

“Why can’t… oh, of _course_ ,” Eliza cuts herself off, and Alex can see how quickly her mom is working on the problem, trying to figure out how to make sure her daughter has the best medical care possible. “I have a friend that might be able to help. Her speciality isn’t in obstetrics, but she is a medical doctor. Between the three of us, I’m sure we’ll be able to get a good balance of science and medicine so that we can make sure the little one is okay.”

“Can you trust her?” J’onn speak up for the first time in a while. “We need to make sure that word of a half-human, half-Martian child doesn’t reach Project Cadmus. We can’t risk what they might do to either Alex or the baby.”

Eliza nods, her mind still clearly focused on working through the problem. “Yes, I trust her. I’ll do a lot of the research on the alien side myself, that way we can restrict access to information and materials, but we will need someone with medical expertise for some parts, and I trust that she’ll be discrete.”

J’onn nods, satisfied with the answer, then turns to Alex, waiting for her decision.

“Okay, we can arrange a meeting with her soon, if that’s good for you?” Alex says, trusting in both J’onn’s instincts and her mom’s.

“I’ll sort everything, don’t worry about it, honey,” her mom says, grinning at both of them. “Who else knows?”

“Only Kara,” Alex answers, then gestures towards J’onn. “They could both hear something strange, but couldn’t work it out until J’onn suddenly realized it was the sound of another heartbeat.”

Her mom presses a hand to her mouth, clearly trying to contain her joy. “You could hear the heartbeat?” she asks J’onn.

“I can hear it right now,” J’onn says, his thumb running along the soft skin on the back of Alex’s hand. “It’s getting stronger and louder every day.”

Her mom looks ecstatic at that, and like she wants to grill J’onn for every piece of information he can give her, but before she can begin, Alex’s stomach growls loudly.

“Oh, we need to get you some food,” her mom says, jumping up from her seat. “C’mon, I’ll fix something up for us all.” She hurries through into the kitchen, leaving Alex and J’onn to catch up to her.

Alex stands up first and pulls J’onn up with her. “I hope you’re ready to become part of the family; you may be older than her, but she’s definitely going to start mothering you now that you’re the father of her grandchild.”

“I think I can deal with that,” J’onn responds quietly, tugging Alex closer so he can drop a quick kiss on her lips before they follow her mom through into the kitchen. “C’mon, let’s go eat.”

\---&\---

Over the next ten weeks, Alex meets up with her mom and Dr Rockwell several times, and they begin the process of making sure that both she and the baby are as healthy as they can be. Dr Rockwell, or Jane as she prefers to be called, is surprisingly easy going about discovering her patient is due to give birth to a half-human, half-Martian child, and Alex is thankful for the general change in attitude towards aliens since her sister went public.

Most of the time Alex meets with them on her own so that she and J’onn aren’t always disappearing off together and raising any questions that they don’t want to answer, but this meeting is her eighteen week check up and they should be able to determine the baby’s sex, so they’re both waiting patiently for Jane at her clinic downtown.

“What are you hoping for?” Alex says quietly to J’onn as he flicks mindlessly through the old magazines in the waiting room.

He throws the magazine back onto the table and turns in his seat towards her. “I honestly don’t mind; as long as you’re both okay, I’ll be happy with anything.”

Alex smiles at him; she knew that was going to be his answer. He raises an eyebrow at her, obviously wanting to know her answer. “I’m the same,” she says, before gathering her courage and asking the question she’s been wondering about for a while. “Is it… would it be difficult for you if we had a girl? Would it remind you too much of K’hym and T’ania?”

J’onn is quiet for a moment, clearly wanting to think through his answer. “I think about them often, but it wouldn’t be too difficult for me. Being reminded of them isn’t a bad thing, and I will love any child of ours completely and utterly,” he takes hold of her hand. “I really don’t mind what sex the baby is.”

Alex nods at him, understanding what he’s trying to say. Before she can say anything in response, Jane comes to the door and tells them to come through.

Half an hour later, they’re walking back towards the DEO, their arms bumping together as they look down at the ultrasound picture of their eighteen week old baby girl.

\---&\---

Two nights later, they invite everyone around to their apartment. They’ve finally moved in the last of J’onn’s possessions and he’s now officially living there too, so their friends think they’re coming over for a housewarming celebration. Except for Kara, of course, who can’t wait to announce that she’s going to be an aunt. Alex is impressed that she’s been able to keep the baby a secret from James; apparently she _can_ keep a secret, as long as it isn’t about her own identity.

“Hey guys, come on in,” Alex says as she opens the door and moves to the side to let Kara, James, Winn, and Lucy in. J’onn pokes his head out of the archway between the kitchen and living room to nod hello at them all before disappearing again. “Don’t mind him, he’s cooking. Go through and take a seat.”

“This is from us all, so we can drink to the good news,” James says as he passes over a really nice bottle of champagne, and Alex can’t help but laugh to herself at the fact that she won’t be able to drink it.

“That’s so sweet, thanks. I’ll go get some glasses.”

She leaves them to get comfortable as she heads into the kitchen, partially to get the glasses and partially to check on J’onn. 

“Hey,” he says, before pressing a quick kiss to her cheek. “This just needs to bake in the oven for a while, then it’ll be ready,” he gestures to the lasagne as he puts it into the oven.

“Great. James got us a bottle of champagne to celebrate you moving in,” Alex winks at him, and laughs as he smirks at her and wraps an arm around her waist.

“I think we have some orange juice in the fridge for you,” he murmurs as he kisses her. 

Alex kisses him back for a moment before she pulls back. “C’mon, let’s go tell them the good news.”

J’onn grabs a tray and loads it up with some glasses before he quickly grabs the juice from the fridge and carries them all through into the living area. Alex follows with the bottle of champagne, and they put everything down on the coffee table. J’onn pops the cork on the bottle and pours a glass for everyone except Alex, who grabs her own glass and pours some juice in it instead. Everyone else is too busy talking amongst themselves to pay any attention.

J’onn clears his throat and indicates for everyone to stand, and as soon as they have, he looks over at Alex. “Thank you all for coming over to celebrate us moving in together, and thank you very much for the champagne,” he raises his glass at James, “but we have an ulterior motive in inviting you all here tonight.”

Alex can’t hold back her grin, and she realizes a second too late that Lucy is watching her strangely. 

“Wait, why aren’t you-- oh my god!” Lucy starts to question, but then puts the pieces together herself. She steps around the coffee table to fling her arms around Alex. “Congratulations!”

Alex laughs as she looks at the confused expressions on both James and Winn’s faces. Before she can explain, Kara practically explodes with glee.

“I’m going to be an aunt!”

Realization dawns on the boys at the same time, and they both quickly offer their congratulations as well, and join in what’s rapidly turning into a group hug. Alex can feel J’onn lurking near her, his hand resting gently on her lower back, but he gets dragged into the group hug when Kara joins in too and practically tackles him with glee.

“Okay, there’s a pregnant lady getting squashed in here,” Alex teases them all, and they quickly break free, all stepping back to give her some space. 

“I think we need to raise our glasses in a toast,” James says, waiting until everyone lifts their drinks with him. “To Alex, J’onn, and their family.”

Alex looks around at them all, at the family they’ve already created together, and smiles. She knows that everyone in the room, plus her mom and Clark, would do anything to help protect her baby. She and J’onn aren’t doing this alone. 

It’s a comforting thought.

\---&\---

It feels like as soon as other people know, her bump gets big enough that it’s starting to get difficult to hide. She wears polo shirts at work that are slightly bigger than usual, and hopes that she can get away without her colleagues noticing for a little longer. Other than having to pee more often, and needing to eat a lot more, Alex doesn’t really seem to be struggling with a lot of the issues most pregnant women report. She’s tired now and then, but it’s not like she’s exhausted all the time.

As far as her mom and Jane can figure out, it’s related to the half-Martian side of her baby’s heritage. From the information they’ve been able to get from J’onn, it sounds as though it was fairly normal on Mars for the mother to have the same kinds of symptoms, or lack of them, as Alex has been having.

Which is why, when the headaches start as she hits week twenty of her pregnancy, Alex gets worried. She’s not normally prone to headaches; she’s never had a migraine before in her life. Jane tells her that it’s likely to do with the shifting hormones within her body and that it’s probably nothing to worry about, but Alex has a feeling that it’s something else, and she’s learned to trust her instincts over the years.

She just has no idea what it could be.

“It might be nothing,” Kara says quietly from where she’s laying with Alex on the couch, her head resting gently on Alex’s small baby bump.

“Yeah,” Alex says, her doubt clear in her tone. She strokes her hand through Kara’s hair, brushing it back from her face, and sighs. “I’m probably just worrying unnecessarily again,” except she doesn’t really believe that.

There’s a noise over near the front door, and a moment later J’onn walks in, dropping his bags to one side as he kicks off his shoes.

“Hey,” he says, making his way over towards them and leaning over to drop a kiss on Alex’s mouth.

“Hey,” Alex responds, her head tipped back to encourage him to kiss her again. Grinning, he follows her unspoken request and lingers this time with his lips on hers.

“Ugh,” Kara mocks from her position further down the sofa. She lifts herself off Alex’s belly and rests on her elbow, turning to face them both. “Do you _have_ to do that?” she teases.

Alex doesn’t pull away from J’onn’s mouth, and instead she pushes Kara’s hair so it’s covering her face. “Don’t watch then, weirdo,” she mutters, before grumbling when J’onn pulls away from her. 

“How are you both?” he asks, straightening up to take his suit jacket off. Alex loves it when he goes undercover as an FBI agent, because he pulls a suit off ridiculously well.

“We’re good,” Kara replies, then grins when both J’onn and Alex raise an eyebrow at her in unison.

“The _baby_ and I are good,” Alex answers his actual question, but before she can go any further, a splitting headache pierces through her mind, almost making her vision white out.

“Alex?” J’onn moves immediately over to the couch and drops down onto his knees in front of her. He gently grips her elbow. “Are you okay?”

She can’t even speak at the moment, the pain is so sharp, but she can feel both Kara and J’onn holding onto her, keeping her from dropping to the floor. 

_Alex? Please, answer me if you can, what’s happening?_ J’onn’s voice is clear in her mind, and for a split second the pain stops, almost as though it’s responding to J’onn’s voice.

_Headache. Pain_. It’s all Alex can manage while she’s still trying to catch her breath. She blinks, only just realizing that her eyes had been scrunched closed, and her gaze settles on J’onn in front of her. He’s frowning down at her bump, looking as though he’s deep in thought.

“What?” she manages to croak out, her fingers linking with Kara’s and gripping her hand tight.

“I think…” J’onn trails off for a moment, before he looks back up at her. “I think I know what’s causing the headaches.”

“Is it the baby?” Kara asks, her fingers twitching against Alex’s.

J’onn nods absently, one hand spreading over her bump and the other pressing against Alex’s forehead. “I think she’s trying to communicate with you, Alex.”

“Communicate?” Alex puts her hand over J’onn’s, links their fingers together as they press against their child. “I thought you said that on Mars, kids didn’t start using telepathy until after they were born?”

“Yeah, the only exceptions I know of were myself and K’hym,” J’onn says, raising an eyebrow at her, “and it seems like our daughter is also an over-achiever.”

“Why is it hurting Alex?” Kara asks.

“M'yri'ah said that she could feel it when K’hym was, well, stretching her mental abilities, but it wasn’t painful,” J’onn says, clearly thinking out loud. He looks straight at Alex. “Maybe it’s because you don’t have telepathic abilities yourself? Maybe I can…” he trails off again.

Alex and Kara both wait, watching J’onn closely. A frown crosses his face, but then suddenly the ache that was throbbing behind her eyes clears, and Alex feels like she can breathe deeply again.

“What did you do?” Alex asks, relief coursing through her now the pain has gone.

“I encouraged her to connect to me instead of you. I think it’s only working because there’s already a telepathic connection between the two of us, otherwise I think the lack of physical connection would have prevented it from working,” he drops his hand from Alex’s forehead, brushing her hair behind her ears on the way. “How does that feel?”

“Better,” Alex admits. “Is she okay?”

“Yeah, she’s okay. She doesn’t have formed thoughts yet, it’s just her mind reaching out for a connection. I think it’s more instinctual than anything else. You shouldn’t have any more pain now though, at least.”

“Good, that’s… good,” Alex says, sitting back and leaning her shoulder against Kara. “Go get changed, I need to eat.”

J’onn smiles at her and squeezes her leg as he stands. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

Kara leans her head against the top of Alex’s and her thumb strokes across the back of Alex’s hand. Everything’s okay with the baby, so Alex relaxes against her sister and closes her eyes. 

Everything’s okay.

\---&\---

It’s been a mostly quiet shift, which Alex is unreasonably grateful for. She’s been completely exhausted all week, ever since her baby’s mental gymnastics began, and she practically feels numb with fatigue as she tries to prop her head up on her arm to stay awake.

“You okay?” Winn says quietly from next to her. They’ve been reviewing footage from a series of bank robberies, trying to work out how the aliens responsible had been able to get in and out without raising any alarms. It’s been slow, tedious work, so she’s glad that she’s had Winn with her to keep her awake.

“Yeah, I’m just tired is all,” Alex murmurs, her eyes blinking slowly, clearly not happy about having to stay open. 

“Is it the, uh,” Winn glances around the control room to make sure they’re on their own, before mouthing out the letters, “b-a-b-y?”

Alex arches an eyebrow at him in amusement. “Shockingly yes, growing another person inside of you does tend to make you tired,” she teases. “She must be having a growth spurt or something. Is it really obvious that I’m pregnant, yet?” Alex smoothes a hand across the small bump that started becoming even more obvious when she hit week twenty-two, wondering how much longer it’ll be before people start noticing that she’s wearing baggier clothes than usual.

“No, I think people would only notice if they were really watching you, which, y’know, I’m sure they haven’t been,” Winn reassures her, before turning back to the large screens in front of them and hitting a few keys on the keyboard. “I don’t think we’re gonna find anything here.”

She sighs. “Yeah, I think you’re right. It’s late; we should probably get going. J’onn and Kara should be back from their training session any minute now.”

Winn nods then starts packing up, obviously happy to be done for the day. A sound out in one of the corridors catches both of their attention, and Alex turns around, expecting to see J’onn walking around the corner.

It’s not J’onn.

Instead, one of the prisoners that had been brought in earlier by the alpha team is standing there, the seemingly lifeless body of one of his guards in one hand, and a long piece of pipe in the other. 

There’s a split second where none of them move, all of them as surprised as each other, but then Alex’s training kicks in. Winn is standing slightly in front of her, between her and the prisoner, so she pushes him to one side, off to safety, as she grabs her gun from the holster on her thigh.

At the exact same moment, the prisoner drops the guard and throws what Alex now recognises as a piece of a nearby handrail straight at her.

She fires three times. Two of the shots land perfectly in the center of his forehead, and the prisoner drops to the ground, but the pipe is already in motion, hurtling towards her and she can’t move away in time.

Alex is completely shocked when the pipe goes straight through her chest. 

She doesn't even feel any pain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please don't kill me for ending this chapter here! Let me know your thoughts in the comments...


	5. Chapter 5 & Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is finally finished! Sorry about the massive delay in getting this last chapter posted; rl went utterly crazy on me :/
> 
> Hope you all like it :)

Alex is completely shocked when the pipe goes straight through her chest. She doesn't even feel any pain. 

 

She panics and immediately fears for her baby, except she's _not feeling any pain_ and surely she should be feeling something by now. She looks down, prepared to see the pipe sticking through her body, except it's not. She spins around, utterly confused, only to see it embedded in the concrete wall behind her. Exactly in line with where she's just been standing.

 

The pipe literally went straight through her, as though she wasn't even there.

 

Alex doesn’t have time to stop and think about what just happened. She rushes over to the prisoner to check if he’s dead, and as soon as she confirms that he is, she checks on his guard. Now that she’s closer, she can see that it’s Agent Gregors. She carefully checks his status, but it’s too late for him as well. Alex stands back up, ignoring the shaking in her hands as the adrenaline courses through her body, making her feel more nauseated than her pregnancy ever has. She goes to walk back over to Winn to check that he’s okay, when suddenly there’s a loud bang as both J’onn and Kara burst through the doors.

 

“Are you okay? We heard shots?” J’onn moves straight over to her, his eyes flicking around the room and assessing the situation.

 

Seeing that J’onn has Alex covered, Kara moves over to Winn and helps him up. “What happened?” she questions.

 

Alex is still in shock, and has no idea how to explain what just happened, so Winn speaks up, his words rushing together. “That prisoner escaped? I think? He was just suddenly there and then Alex pushed me out of the way and shot him, but he threw that pipe,” Winn gestures to the metal sticking out of the concrete behind him, “and it went straight through Alex but she took him down, and I’m pretty certain she saved my life.”

 

At his words, J’onn immediately starts checking Alex for any injuries, his hands running over her torso as he tries to find where the pipe went through her.

 

“J’onn, I’m okay, _J’onn_ ,” Alex catches hold of his hands to try to stop his panicked searching. She waits until he meets her eyes, “I’m okay, I promise.”

 

“How…” J’onn trails off, still terrified over the thought of her being injured.

 

“It literally went _straight through her_ , like, like she wasn’t even _there_ ,” Winn says, his arms flailing around as he tries to explain what he saw.

 

Kara walks over to the pipe and pulls it out of the wall. “This was at least six inches deep into the concrete, Winn. Are you sure that’s what happened?”

 

Alex answers instead, “It went straight through me, I saw it. I thought… I thought that was it, but then I couldn’t feel any pain, and--” her words are cut off as J’onn pulls her into a hug, his arms wrapping around her as though he’s trying to keep her safe from anything that could possibly try to hurt her or their child right now. “It was like… it was almost like when you phase through something, J’onn.”

 

They pull away from each other for a moment as they look into each other’s eyes, and they both realize what that means at the same time. They each drop their gaze down to her abdomen. 

 

“Oh my _god_ ,” Winn freaks out. “Did the baby phase you both through the pipe?”

 

Alex just nods absently, her eyes flicking back up to meet J’onn’s shocked ones.

 

“I’ve never heard of… I mean, it was highly unusual for both myself and K’hym to be able to use _telepathy_ while still in the womb. Being able to use other abilities has never happened before,” J’onn says, his hand running over Alex’s abdomen in awe.

 

“She really is an overachiever, isn’t she?” Alex laughs, still in shock. Her unborn baby just _saved her life_.

 

“We need to delete the CCTV,” Kara suddenly says, her eyes flicking around the room to find what camera angles are likely to have been captured.

 

“Yeah, sure, why do we need to delete the _oh_ , god yeah we need to delete the CCTV,” Winn rushes over to his workstation and starts tapping away at the keys.

 

“You don’t have access to--” J’onn begins, moving over to help Winn, but gets cut off before he can finish his sentence.

 

“I’m already in,” Winn says, grinning up at J’onn but quickly dropping it when he sees how unimpressed J’onn looks.

 

“We’ll discuss this later,” he says, standing behind Winn and staring at the monitor. “What did it capture?”

 

There’s a few moments silence as Winn pulls everything up on screen, so Alex takes the opportunity to take a seat next to him, the adrenaline rush beginning to abandon her and the exhaustion creeping back in. J’onn runs his hand across her shoulders and curls his fingers around the back of her neck, rubbing gently against her skin. Kara stands on her other side, just as the screens pop to life in front of them.

 

“Okay, so there are three different cameras that picked up what happened,” Winn mutters mostly to himself, but just loud enough for the rest of them to hear. “These two are mostly focused on where the prisoner came in, so they see him throw the pipe and then go down, but they don’t show anything that happened to Alex. And it looks like you were stood just off camera when you were both drawing attention to little Bump there--”

 

“Don’t call my child ‘Bump’,” J’onn interrupts.

 

“Uh huh,” Winn continues as though there was no pause, “but this camera angle shows-- wow, okay, yeah this is gonna show everything. Watch this.”

 

The video cues up in front of them and suddenly they’re watching on the screen as Alex pushes Winn to safety and fires, before the pipe comes flying at her. There’s a second, just a split second, where a bright red light crackles across Alex’s torso, just as the pipe hits her. Watching it go straight through her makes Alex go cold. 

 

If it hadn’t been for the baby, that would have killed her. 

 

There’s no question about it.

 

_Breathe, Alex_ , J’onn thinks at her, his thumb rubbing against the back of her neck.

 

“We need to delete this,” Alex says out loud, trying to focus on the task at hand. She’ll have time to fall apart later, when she and J’onn are at home together. She needs to make sure her child is protected first.

 

“Yeah, I’ll try to make it look like a tech glitch or something. I’ll take it back to a few hours before this all happened, so it doesn’t look as suspicious,” Winn murmurs as he types furiously, utterly unaware of the conflict running through J’onn behind him. Alex can tell that one the one hand, he’s deeply unhappy at Winn being able to do this to their systems. But, on the other, he’s willing to do anything and everything to protect his family.

 

Alex is one hundred percent in agreement with him.

 

“You should take Alex home,” Kara says to J’onn, “we’ll sort everything out here.”

 

“I need to make a statement; I can’t go anywhere,” Alex says, her exhaustion hitting a new level. She’s honestly not sure how her eyes are still open.

 

“It can wait; I’m taking you home,” J’onn says, helping her from her seat. 

 

Alex knows that as soon as they’re clear of the facility, and the cameras onsite, he’ll carry her so that she won’t have to worry about how to place one foot in front of the other. All she needs to do is gather the energy to get that far and then she knows that he’s got her back.

\---&\---

J’onn forces her to take the next day off work. Apparently, Lucy is dealing with the fallout following the death of their prisoner and the three agents he’d killed. Alex flinches when she finds out that the other bodies were discovered near his cell and she’s reminded how close she, and her baby and Winn, came to joining them. J’onn trusts that Lucy can handle everything, so he takes Alex to visit her mom and Jane, insisting that she should get checked over, just in case.

 

Her mom and J’onn are standing off to one side while Jane checks her vitals before moving on to check that the baby is okay, but Alex can still hear them, despite her mom’s efforts to be quiet.

 

“She shouldn’t be in the field, J’onn. She’s got the baby to think of,” Eliza says in hushed tones.

 

Alex can hear a quiet grunt from J’onn before he speaks. “She wasn’t in the field; she was sat in the office reviewing CCTV tapes.”

 

“You know what I mean; it’s too dangerous for her now.”

 

“Alex is the best judge of her own body and mind. When she tells me she’s ready to take a step back, then that’s what we’ll do. Until then, if she wants to, she can carry on her duties as normal,” he responds, his voice carrying slightly, and Alex knows that he knows she’s listening. He’s not just saying that for her benefit though; she can hear the truth of his words deep down in her mind, and she feels an aching love for him building inside her. The fact that he so obviously loves her and wants to protect her, but also _trusts_ her enough to know that she needs to make her own decisions, is a heady feeling to get used to.

 

She knows how close things were yesterday. She’s aware enough of her own mind to recognize the rising panic whenever she thinks about it too much, but she also can’t stand the thought of not working, of not being there to help. She’s already made up her mind that she’ll work for as long as she possibly can, although she already knows that she’s going to have to pull back on the field work sooner rather than later. Despite the fact that no-one has mentioned it at the DEO yet, it’s not going to be possible to hide her bump for very much longer, maybe a week at the most, and Alex knows that being visibly pregnant while performing the kind of tasks she usually does out in the field is like painting a giant target on her back. Well, more like on her belly. But either way, it won’t be much longer before she benches herself.

 

The fact that J’onn is willing to let her make that decision herself is just one of many reasons why she loves him.

 

_Thank you_ , she speaks softly into his mind.

 

J’onn doesn’t respond with words, but she can feel his presence wrap around her mind, almost like he’s holding her in his arms, and Alex relaxes back and waits for Jane to finish her checks.

 

If no-one catches on by the end of the week, then Alex will make an announcement and step back from field work by Monday. It’s just a waiting game until then.

\---&\---

Everything is fine with both Alex and the baby, so she returns to work the following day. The official story is that the prisoner had missed when he’d thrown the pipe, and she’s greeted that morning by a _lot_ of her coworkers all saying how glad they are that she was so lucky. Winn still looks a little shaken up about everything, but once she takes him to one side and reassures him that everything’s fine, he seems to settle down again into his usual self.

 

It doesn’t take long for everyone to drift back to their own workstations, the excitement of Alex being back soon wearing off, so Alex is confused when she suddenly hears another thrum of murmuring start to work its way around the control room.

 

“What’s going on?” she says quietly to Winn, knowing that despite how new he is to the team, he’ll still know the gossip.

 

“I’m not sure, I thought someone just said something about Superm--” Winn cuts himself off as he suddenly looks at something over Alex’s shoulder. “Oh my _god_ Superman is here again.”

 

Alex spins around in her seat, already standing up as she looks over to the entrance of the room as Clark walks in, Vasquez by his side. Alex frowns as she searches out J’onn, then relaxes slightly when she sees him walking towards her.

 

_Is something going on?_ , she asks him, unsure as to why they’re both here in National City.

 

_I wasn’t aware of anything, hang on a moment_ , J’onn says before going silent for a few seconds. _They’re here to give a status report on the progress of the task force_ , he suddenly thinks, and Alex has a minute of confusion because J’onn has always said he can’t read Kryptonians’ minds, before she realizes that he obviously picked that up from Vasquez.

 

Alex just nods at him to let him know she heard him, before she walks over to greet Clark and Vasquez, both of whom suddenly stop in their tracks and stare at her.

 

“Hey, good to see you both…” Alex trails off, suddenly feeling incredibly uncomfortable at the way they both look startled. “What?”

 

Clark just glances down at her belly before looking over her shoulder in the vicinity of where Alex can tell J’onn is standing, and _oh shit_ she forgot that Clark doesn’t know about the baby. Well, _didn’t_ know, because he clearly does now. And from the look on Vasquez’s face, she knows too.

 

“Oh my god, Danvers! You definitely forgot to mention something during our bi-weekly catch up calls,” Vasquez laughs as she gives Alex a hug, clearly trying to be careful of the bump between them, and Alex figures that she might need to make an announcement a few days earlier than her plan.

 

“Surprise,” Alex smiles, trying not to focus on the silent conversation Clark and J’onn are attempting to have with looks alone as J’onn comes to stand by her side. She’s hyper aware of how good an agent Vasquez is, so she doesn’t want to do anything that might give away who the father is, especially not while they’re surrounded by what seems like every staff member at the DEO.

 

In fact, when she glances off to the side at the crowd gathering, she can see awareness start to dawn on a few of their faces. Alex figures that they’ve probably not noticed the changes in her body because they see her every day, but the difference will have been immediately obvious to both Vasquez and Clark who haven’t seen her in months.

 

“Congratulations,” Clark says as he steps in for a gentle hug as soon as Vasquez is done.

 

“I’m so glad we can finally talk about little Bump here,” Winn pops up from the other side of J’onn, his giddiness over seeing his idol a little overshadowed by the fact that he’s obviously been bursting to talk about the fact that Alex is pregnant with someone new.

 

“Oh!” Vasquez looks shocked, and Alex has a sinking feeling that something isn’t quite right with her reaction. She’s right. “Are you two…” Vasquez trails off, her finger pointing back and forth between Alex and Winn and _oh_.

 

“No! No, no, Winn is not the father,” Alex automatically hurries to correct the assumption, her arms flailing slightly as she can hear murmurs starting to work their way around the agents and staff standing around nearby, all watching the exchange with avid interest.

 

“Wow, _rude_ ,” Winn mutters, “I would be an amazing dad.”

 

“We’re all sure you would be, Mr Schott,” J’onn says, resting his hand heavily on Winn’s shoulder in a clear signal to get him to shut up. Winn’s jaw practically snaps closed, so he obviously gets the message. “But I’m sure Superman and Agent Vasquez have other things to discuss today.”

 

“Let’s go somewhere a little quieter,” Clark suggests, picking up on Alex’s discomfort and giving her a small smile. “I’m sure everyone is busy and we don’t want to distract anyone from their work.”

 

J’onn pointedly looks at Winn until he suddenly gets it and he spins around and rushes back to his workstation. J’onn leads Clark and Vasquez over towards his office, but Alex drops behind them for a second and glances back over at Winn just in time to see him mouth the word _sorry_ to her. She rolls her eyes at him, but she knows he means well so she’s not too concerned about what the rumor mill is going to be generating. If she’s honest, she’d rather there be rumors about Winn being the father of her baby than anyone guessing the truth, so she’s not going to work too hard to correct anyone’s assumptions.

 

She catches up with the others just as they’re walking into J’onn’s office, so he holds the door open for her, his hand ghosting over the small of her back as she brushes past him.

 

_Are you okay?_ he asks, his hand dropping away from her in a smooth move.

 

_Yeah_ , she answers honestly. _I’m kind of relieved actually. At least people know now and I didn’t have to do some kind of awkward announcement_.

 

J’onn tries to hide the quiet laugh that escapes, but Clark definitely hears it and Alex thinks Vasquez might have, because she’s looking between the two of them, her gaze thoughtful and calculating, so Alex quickly takes a seat and gets them on topic, hoping to keep Vasquez from putting two and two together.

 

The distraction seems to work for the moment, although Alex knows they need to be even more careful from now on. They can’t afford to mess up, not with Project Cadmus still an unknown force gravitating at the edges of their lives.

\---&\---

Everything changes quickly after that. The taskforce is such a success that a decision is made to set up a new division in Metropolis. Clark still won’t quite have the same kind of relationship with the DEO that Kara has, but it’s definitely a step forward. Lucy volunteers to head up the team there, with Vasquez as her second-in-command, saying that she misses the east coast. Privately, Alex thinks that as much as she seems to be okay with Kara and James, maybe it’s easier for her not to be around them every day.

 

Some other agents transfer over to the new site as well, so any probing questions from her colleagues about her newly-discovered pregnancy seem to be on the back burner, which Alex is immensely grateful about. They’ve been even more careful lately; making sure not to travel in to work together, trying not to spend too much time together while in the office, and even having J’onn fly to another location before shifting into several different random people on his way back to their apartment. They don’t know if they’re being watched, or if anyone even suspects a thing, but they can’t risk making a mistake that could bring harm to their child. At first Kara thinks they’re being overdramatic, but it doesn’t take long for the reality of what _could_ happen to kick in, and she starts including Alex’s apartment in her usual patrols around the city, just to make sure nothing suspicious is happening near it.

 

Right now though, Alex is warm and content in their bed, waiting for J’onn to get home after working late. She’s catching up on some reading while she’s curled up on her side, her hand idly skimming over her ever-expanding bump, when she hears the front door close. Alex waits a few more minutes, her ears listening intently for the sounds of J’onn checking over the apartment and making sure it’s secure, before she hears him move towards their bedroom.

 

“Hey,” he says quietly as he walks in, closing the door gently behind him and already starting to tug his clothes off. 

 

“Hey yourself,” Alex smiles at him, dropping her book onto the nightstand and turning to face him. She struggles a little to push herself further up the bed, still not quite used to how big her belly seems to have gotten in the eight weeks since everyone at the DEO found out, and watches as he strips down to his boxer briefs. “Everything okay at work?”

 

“All good,” he says, clearly not wanting to go into anything further. She’s still got approximately two months to go before she’s due, but Alex has been slowly scaling back her workload. She doesn’t want to stop working completely until as late as possible, but she’s very aware of how dangerous her job is and she doesn’t want to take any unnecessary risks. Which means that J’onn has taken to not telling her every single thing that happens at work, by her own request, because they both know that she won’t be able to resist getting involved in things.

 

Alex just nods at him, and doesn’t press for more information. “You tired?” she asks as she flicks the covers back on the bed so he can climb in next to her.

 

J’onn glances at the tiny shorts and vest Alex is wearing, the top stretching across her baby bump, and smirks as he gets into the bed and reaches out to stroke one hand against her hip. “Not even a little bit. You?”

 

Alex grins at him before turning to rise on her knees next to him. “I was hoping you’d say that,” she murmurs against his lips as she leans down to kiss him, her hands cupping his face.

 

J’onn’s hands run gently down her sides, over her hips and up her back, and Alex already can’t wait any longer. She’s like a switch lately, one second she’s fine and then the next she’s so horny that she can barely think straight. 

 

“Fuck, J’onn, c’mon,” Alex breaks away from him to pull her top over her head. J’onn catches on quickly and tugs her shorts and panties down her thighs. Alex squirms, trying to maneuver around her belly, as she gets the material all the way down her legs and kicks them off her ankles. J’onn shoves his own underwear down, his cock already hard for her, and Alex is done. She needs him right the fuck now. “Behind me,” she says as she turns towards the headboard, still on her knees, and rests her forearms on the solid edge.

 

“ _Fuck_ ,” she hears J’onn breathe out, the sight of her leaning over for him clearly turning him on. “No foreplay?”

 

Alex shakes her head as she hears him move behind her, his knees shoving in between her own to encourage her to spread her legs a little for him. “I’m wet enough already; I just need you in me.”

 

J’onn grunts loudly as he rests his forehead on her back for a moment, his hands already on her hips, ready to steady her as he fucks her. “Yeah, yeah, okay,” he gasps out before one hand drops lower down as he guides himself into her. 

 

He pushes in slowly, one long slide that feels like sheer heaven, right until he bottoms out. J’onn holds himself there for a minute, filling her completely, obviously trying to catch his breath so he doesn’t come ridiculously fast, but Alex doesn’t care. She needs him hard and fast and a little bit dirty, so she wiggles her ass slightly, just enough to encourage him to move.

 

“C’mon, c’mon,” she teases, “you don’t want to keep the mother of your child waiting, do you?”

 

J’onn’s fingers dig into her skin and his hips stutter forward, pushing him deeper into her, his body unable to hide how much it turns him on to hear that. “You are a cruel, cruel woman,” he says, before sliding one hand up her back to cup around her shoulder.

 

Alex doesn’t bother saying anything, she just rocks forward slightly before pressing back into him, fucking herself on his cock. His hold on her tightens but he doesn’t try to control her movements. Instead, he lets her take the lead, lets her move exactly how she wants, lets her use him for her own pleasure. Alex can’t help but clench down on him, her legs already starting to shake with how desperately she needs this. She can’t move as quickly as she’d like to, her belly is a little too big for her to really bounce up and down on him, but the angle he’s hitting is almost enough to make up for that.

 

“Please, J’onn,” Alex gasps out, one hand pressing against the wall so she can brace herself as she rocks back onto him.

 

“Lean back against me,” J’onn murmurs, then helps her to move, his cock still inside her. When her weight is being supported by him, J’onn wraps one arm under her breasts, gently holding onto her, while his other hand strokes down the side of her belly. “You okay?”

 

“I’ll be better when you fuck me,” she says, tilting her face towards him until he gets the hint and kisses her. The angle isn’t the best, but Alex loves kissing him anyway.

 

J’onn smiles against her lips and lets his hand trail down over her hip until it’s pressing against her thigh, holding her steady against him. He drops down slightly, the drag of his cock as he withdraws from her causing a shiver to break out over her skin, before he lifts up again, fucking into her. The hand on her thigh drifts over her skin until he’s dragging his fingertips along the crease of her hip, then he suddenly switches direction and slides his fingers across her pussy until he can flick his thumb against her clit.

 

“There,” Alex gasps, one hand clutching at J’onn’s forearm, while the other reaches below her belly to press his hand harder against her clit.

 

“How do you want to come, Alex?” J’onn breathes in her ear, his lips grazing against the sensitive skin. “Like this, or do you want to bend over for me? Do you want me to take you on your hands and knees?”

 

“ _Fuck_ , J’onn, I don’t care, I just… I need to come _now_.”

 

J’onn grunts before moving his hand away from her clit and pulling out of her completely, and this is the exact opposite of what Alex wants. She whines her displeasure, unable to stop the desperate sob from breaking free, but then his hands carefully guide her into bending over so she’s resting on her hands and knees. Alex steadies herself, makes sure she’s properly balanced and the extra bulk of her bump is being supported by a pillow she quickly pushes under her. As soon as she’s ready, she nods at him, knows he was waiting for her sign.

 

He pushes back in slowly, allows her to get used to him again, but then it’s like all bets are off. He starts fucking her hard, never too much to be painful, but definitely enough for her to feel it. Alex can hear the obscene sound of his balls slapping against her skin as his hips slam into hers, and she knows she’s close, that tingling sensation low down in her spine is starting to build to a crescendo. 

 

J’onn drags his fingers along the soft skin of her back until he’s gripping her ass, one cheek in each hand. He squeezes gently, his thumbs dropping down towards her pussy to spread her wide open, and Alex doesn’t need to be able to read J’onn’s mind to know how much he’s getting off on watching himself drive into her. It’s that image, of knowing how much it’s working for J’onn, that tips her over the edge. Her arms threaten to buckle as she clenches down on him, her vision whiting out for a moment in sheer pleasure, and the half-choked grunt she hears from J’onn finishes her off. She’s vaguely aware of him lasting a few more thrusts before he stills, his fingers digging almost painfully into her ass as he comes. 

 

They stay like that for a few more seconds, basking in the sensations, before Alex knows she needs to move. “You tired yet?” she laughs over her shoulder, wincing ever so slightly as J’onn pulls out of her.

 

“I think I could sleep now,” J’onn teases her, stroking gently over her ass, his hands rubbing in certain spots, and Alex just knows that her skin there has bright red marks in the shape of his fingers.

 

“Well I need to pee, first,” she says, “but then we’re definitely gonna fall asleep in each other’s arms, okay?”

 

“Yes, dear,” J’onn quirks a grin at her, already climbing off the bed so he can give her a hand getting up, and Alex feels so happy that she’s almost giddy. She’s not sure how she’s even going to be able to fall asleep with all the joy that’s bubbling up under her skin, but five minutes later she’s curled up with her back to J’onn’s chest, and his fingers idly drawing patterns across her bump while she snores.

\---&\---

Alex feels like she’s approximately the same size, and shape, as a house right now. She’s still got another week to go before her due date, but she’s pretty certain that today is gonna be her last day at work until she returns from maternity leave, mostly because she’s so goddamn uncomfortable that she’s likely to snap and kill someone at any moment.

 

That someone is likely to be Winn.

 

“You’re sure you’re okay?” he asks, trying to guide her into her seat, and she knows at least seven different ways that she could kill him before her ass even hits the cushion.

 

“I swear to god, Winn, you’re mothering me more than my actual mother.”

 

Winn backs away quickly, sitting down next to her, before checking his watch and then scribbling something down on a piece of paper she can’t quite see.

 

“Ooookay, so let’s review this footage and continue ignoring the fact that you’re clearly going into labor,” Winn says, wheeling closer to Alex and tapping away at the keyboard in front of her.

 

“Will you stop _saying that_ , Winn. I’m not going into labor. I’ve still got a week before my due date.”

 

“Oh yeah, because denial is definitely helping this situation.”

 

“ _Winn_.”

 

“Fine. Let’s watch the damn CCTV,” he grumbles, and Alex takes a few deep breaths to calm the urge to strangle him. 

 

Alex leans back in her seat and strokes a hand over her belly, trying to soothe her baby who has apparently taken to some kind of martial art, if the kicking is any indication. That’s all the pain is; the baby is just restless. She’s not going into labor.

 

Ten minutes later, Alex is still adamant that she’s not in labor, right up until her waters suddenly break, and denial is no longer something she can run with.

 

“Shit!” she says, trying to get to her feet.

 

Winn, somehow, seems to be calm, which is so baffling to Alex that she would stop in her tracks if she wasn’t, y’know, in labor. He grabs his phone and taps a few keys, before he takes her hands and starts walking her over to the exit. As soon as they pass the main desk, he pauses, kicks open a small cabinet, then ducks down to grab hold of a bag.

 

It takes Alex a minute, but she finally recognizes it as her ‘go bag’, the one she and J’onn had prepared last week, and she wonders how on Earth Winn seems to be more organized about this than she is. She doesn’t get much time to dwell on that thought before both J’onn and Kara are suddenly by her side.

 

“Are you okay?” J’onn says, clearly panicking but trying not to show it, not while they’re surrounded by everyone in the DEO.

 

Alex huffs. “Apparently I’m in labor, so no, not really,” she says as both J’onn and Kara take over holding onto her. “Wait, how did you--”

 

“I text them. I’ve also contacted Superman; he’s going to fly over and keep an eye on things while you’re all, y’know, busy,” Winn speaks quickly, leading them all towards the exit, while stuffing a piece of paper into her bag. “I’ve made a note of her contractions. They’ve been speeding up quickly, and her water just broke, so I think this is going to be a fast labor.”

 

Alex just stares at him. “How the hell have you been tracking my contractions? I didn’t even know I was having them?”

 

Winn just raises an eyebrow, as though he’s not even going to dignify that with a response. “Kara should carry Alex; it’ll only raise potential questions if J’onn does it.”

 

J’onn doesn’t look particularly happy about that, but he nods. “Yeah, thanks Winn. Hold the fort, we’ll be in touch.”

 

Winn hands over Alex’s bag to J’onn while Kara carefully scoops her up, then suddenly Alex is flying through the sky towards Jane’s offices. They’d decided that was the most logical place to deliver the baby; somewhere private, but with medical equipment at their fingertips. It’s barely two minutes before they arrive, and then J’onn takes her into his arms and leads her into the delivery room, and from there everything seems to be a blur…

 

...until Alex has her daughter in her arms and time stands still.

 

She’s gorgeous. Possibly the most beautiful thing she’s ever seen. She has ten tiny fingers and ten tiny toes, and Alex has to hold back the bizarre urge to nibble on them. J’onn is pressed against Alex’s side, one hand cupped around the back of his daughter’s head, Kara is bursting with excitement on her other side, alternating between taking pictures and talking to Eliza on the phone, and Alex can’t take her eyes off the child gazing up at her.

 

“Look at her,” Alex says to no one in particular. “She’s just so…”

 

“Yeah…,” J’onn grins, his thumb gently stroking across their child’s forehead. 

 

Alex can’t break her eyes away. She has pale green skin, but her body is shaped like a human child; the only other sign of her alien heritage is the fiercely bright red eyes that are alternating between staring at Alex and then J’onn. “We need to work out what we’re going to do,” Alex murmurs, finally turning her head to look at the father of her child as he leans forward to kiss their baby’s head.

 

“About her eyes and skin?” he asks.

 

Alex just nods. She has no issue with what their child looks like, but it’ll certainly be hard to keep her parentage a secret if she so clearly looks like her dad.

 

“Just watch,” J’onn says. A second later, a red light crackles across her baby’s skin, then she’s looking at dark blue eyes and skin that’s as pale as her own.

 

“Did you just do that?”

 

“No, she did,” J’onn smiles. “She’s an overachiever, remember.”

 

“I have, like, the coolest niece ever,” Kara jokes, leaning in so she can grin at the baby.

 

“We need to name her,” Alex murmurs, her fingers tucking the blanket in a little more securely around her daughter.

 

“I was trying not to think of names,” J’onn says, “not until I saw her. I wanted to see if something felt right.”

 

“And does it?” Alex asks.

 

J’onn nods. “How do you feel about Olivia?”

 

_Olivia_. Alex thinks about it. J’onn’s right: something feels… _right_ about the name. It fits the small baby in her arms, and she can almost picture the amazing woman she’ll grow up to be. 

 

“Yeah,” Alex grins, looking at her baby, at J’onn, at Kara. Everything in this moment feels perfect. “Olivia it is.”

\---&\---

**Epilogue: Three years later.**

 

J’onn lands solidly on his feet at the entrance to their driveway and phases back into looking like Hank Henshaw. It’s been years since his identity was revealed to the world, but some habits are hard to break, and he finds a strange level of comfort in occupying this form. They may not have to worry about Cadmus anymore, they’d managed to destroy the bulk of the organization about eighteen months after Olivia was born, but he knows that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re safe and he prefers not to push his luck by staying in his natural form all the time. 

 

They still needed to keep Olivia’s origins a secret, so officially the story is that he and Alex had become closer during her pregnancy, and that after she gave birth, they’d slowly developed a relationship together. Once aliens became eligible to legally be registered as citizens, he adopted Liv. To the outside world, he’s her step-dad and her ‘real’ father is a random one night stand. It’s not ideal, but if it helps to protect their daughter, then Alex and J’onn are willing to go along with that story. Olivia obviously knows the truth, but she also knows why it has to be kept a secret.

 

Speaking of his daughter, J’onn walks up the drive and arrives at his front door at the same time as Kara lands, James and Liv both holding onto her. Despite the fact that Kara was the one flying, it’s clear, of the three of them, which one is in charge. J’onn can’t hold the grin back from his face as Olivia lets go of Kara and runs at him, leaping into his arms as he ducks down to pick her up. 

 

She may only be three years old, but developmentally she’s already almost twice that age. She’d started walking, completely unaided, when she was nine months old and was already talking away, at first just a word at a time, but then moving terrifyingly quickly on to small sentences, by the time she was eleven months old. Liv had been communicating telepathically since almost the moment she was born. Not in words, at least not at first, but his daughter’s capacity to learn and absorb the world around her continually astounds him. She already knows that she needs to keep some things secret; her aunt’s identity as Supergirl, the fact that her dad actually _is_ her dad, and her own abilities, are just a few of the things that his daughter is already a master of concealing. 

 

What she’s terrible at concealing, however, is just how much she has Kara and James wrapped around her little finger. Actually, Winn is probably the worst, but seeing as how J’onn just left him at the DEO, he knows that Winn isn’t to blame for the chocolate that’s smeared on his daughter’s chin.

 

He looks at the cheeky grin on Liv’s face, then just raises an eyebrow at Kara and James. “So, what happened to no treats before dinner?”

 

James, at least, has the grace to look guilty. Kara takes a deep breath, clearly about to defend herself, but J’onn just raises a hand in her direction to stop her before she starts.

 

“You both need to learn how to say no to her,” J’onn scolds, lightly. 

 

Liv clasps her hands to his cheeks, squishing his face slightly. “No, daddy,” she giggles, and yeah okay, J’onn is the first to admit that it’s not just Kara, James, and Winn that his daughter has complete control over. 

 

“C’mon muffin, let’s go get you cleaned up before mommy sees you,” J’onn tucks her onto his hip and turns her slightly so she can say goodbye to her aunt and uncle.

 

“Mommy’s home?” Liv squirms in his arms, clearly excited to see her. Alex has been away for the last week helping out the Metropolis-based branch of the DEO with an investigation, and Liv isn’t the only one that’s missed her.

 

“We’ll let you guys get caught up, but tell Alex I’ll see her later. Give me a messy kiss, sweetie,” Kara says as she swoops in to press a loud, smacking kiss on Liv’s cheek, much to his daughter’s delight. 

 

As soon as Kara steps back, James is there with his fist held out. “Like I taught you?”

 

Liv leans towards her uncle and bumps her knuckles against his, then spreads her fingers out wide as she mimics his movements. “Boom!” 

 

J’onn rolls his eyes at them, but has to admit it’s a pretty cute sight. “See you both tomorrow?”

 

“Yes, boss,” Kara teases as she grabs James’ hand and pulls him towards her, then waves at Liv as they fly away together.

 

J’onn opens the door and carries Liv straight through into the kitchen, sitting her on the island near the sink. He grabs a cloth to clean her up, thankful that her clothes at least seem to be clean. “You still hungry, kiddo?”

 

Liv swings her little legs, her feet tapping at the surface beneath her. “Silly daddy. I’m always hungry,” she says seriously, rolling her eyes at how silly he’s apparently being. 

 

“Yeah, you definitely get that from me,” he says, kissing her now clean cheek as he lifts her back down to the ground. “You get the sass from your mother, though.”

 

Liv giggles at him as she races through to the living room to get to her toys. “I’m gonna tell mommy,” she teases, clearly enjoying torturing him.

 

Speaking of mommy, J’onn hasn’t heard Alex moving yet, even though she’s clearly home. He reaches out with his mind, but hits up against a wall; shortly after Liv was born, he’d trained her in putting up mental walls so that her mind couldn’t be read. It was partly a temporary measure until Olivia was old enough to be taught when she should, and _shouldn’t_ , read people, but it was also partly because J’onn recognized that Alex needs some space for herself, sometimes. She doesn’t always use it, but he knows that just having the option to have some privacy is something that means a lot to Alex.

 

“Alex, we’re home!” J’onn shouts out, then goes to join Olivia in the living room, sitting cross legged in front of her.

 

He looks down at his daughter as she plays with her toys, and he can't believe how much his life has changed. Alex and Liv and Kara and all the friends that they've made their family, make him happier than he ever thought possible. When he lost M’yri’ah, K’hym, and T’ania he thought he'd never be happy again, but Alex, and then Olivia, managed to change that. He loves them all fiercely, but he'll never be able to describe to Alex just how much she means to him. She gave him a family again, and he's pretty certain that he couldn't be happier. 

 

A small noise near the doorway alerts him to Alex finally appearing, but when she doesn't immediately sweep into the room to grab Liv and kiss her, like she usually does, J’onn looks up at her. 

 

She looks nervous, but excited, and J’onn is painfully aware of the fact that her mental walls are up. He can't get a read on her, which worries him, right up until she looks him in the eye. There's something there, a look that he can't decipher, but it's making his heart race. 

 

Alex holds up a small piece of plastic, stick-like in shape, and gives him a small smile. 

 

“I've got something I need to tell you,” she says softly, her voice shaking slightly. 

 

It takes him a moment before he recognizes what she's holding in her hands. In a split second he's by her side, one hand curving around her cheek as he tilts her head slightly so he can see into her eyes. 

 

There's hope and love and a little bit of sheer terror, all of which he knows is reflected in his own gaze. He has no idea how she's done it, but somehow Alex has surpassed herself. He thought she couldn't make him any happier, and yet…

 

“I'm pregnant.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know your thoughts in the comments! Also, I'm already 4k into a J'onn/Alex sex pollen fic, so that'll be coming soon :D

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to say [hi](http://oddlyfamiliar.tumblr.com/) over on tumblr!


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